Robi’s share soars 50% on market debut

Shares of the country's second largest telecom company Robi Axiata, have surged to 50 percent on its market debut at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Thursday.

The first trading of the company's shares was conducted with 50% gain on face value Tk10 each.

Till 12:30 pm at DSE, buyers had offered to buy above 15 crore shares at Tk15 each but there is no seller on that price.

However, 34.66 thousand shares of Robi share has been traded at Tk15 each in the first two and half hours, which value of Tk5 lakh.

A senior official of a brokerage firm said, investors expect level to high on Robi's share price. So, most of the investors stuck their shares for high returns.

The company has raised Tk523.79 crore through issuing 52.37 crore shares at a face value of Tk10 each.

It is the largest ever IPO company in the country's stock market history.

Raising capital, the company will expand its network.

Of the amount, Tk388 crore is being taken from external investors, while Tk136 crore from its own employees under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP).

Tk155 crore or 40% of the amount – slated to be raised from external investors – is being collected from eligible institutional investors.

On Wednesday, the company announced the third quarter financials of 2020 on the main bourse.

As per un-audited consolidated financial statements, in the third quarter of 2020, Robi's net profit stood Tk38.88 crore and basic earnings per share (EPS) stood Tk0.08. In the previous year, the profit was Tk170.67 crore and EPS was Tk0.36.

In the first nine months of this year, the company's net profit stood at Tk116.03 core and basic EPS stood at Tk0.25. In the previous year, the company's profit was Tk 113.85 crore and basic EPS was Tk0.24.

In September this year, Robi got the approval of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO).

Robi commenced operations in 1997 as Telekom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) under the brand name Aktel.

In 2010, it was rebranded as Robi and the company changed its name to Robi Axiata Ltd. After the merger with Airtel Bangladesh in 2016, the company emerged as the second largest telecom operator and retained the same name.

Currently, Robi's controlling 68.69% of shares are held by Malaysian telecom giant Axiata Group Berhad.

Following Japanese NTT Docomo Inc's exit this year, Delhi-based Bharti Airtel is the second major investor in the company.