Bangladesh: Grameenphone Gets Permission for Launching IPO

Grameenphone is the largest player in the telecom sector in Bangladesh. It is a very popular mobile phone operator and it has the largest market share. Earlier, it got the approval of Securities

and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Bangladesh for its (GP’s) IPO application. It is almost one year that there is media speculation in Dhaka that GP would go in to the stock exchange. So, it is not a speculation anymore.

It is good news for the investors in stock exchange here in Dhaka. By the way, I don’t know if it is a coincidence or not- today, Dhaka stock exchange had its highest turnover of all time. Record amount of money (Tk 11.49 billion) was transacted today.

I found a press release from the website of Telenor and I am giving it here:

GP Receives Consent for IPO

Grameenphone (GP) Ltd. received formal consent from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Bangladesh on its Initial Public Offer (IPO) application today.

The approval comes after conclusion of a positive dialogue between the SEC and Grameenphone in recent weeks. GP filed its final IPO application with the SEC in December 2008 and had submitted the final prospectus in January 2009. Notably the valuation of the company and the offer price remains unchanged, as per the original application.

“We are very pleased to have received the official consent from the SEC today and look forward to an expeditious launching of the public offer and successful listing of our shares in country’s bourses” said Grameenphone CEO Oddvar Hesjedal, adding that “we (Grameenphone) are ready and will be following a fast process for fulfilling of certain necessary conditions and formalities.”

Among the conditions set by the SEC for the approval are that GP would have to convert the face value of the offered shares from BDT 1 per share to BDT 10 per share.

Grameenphone shareholders have further decided to revise the total offer size, including IPO and Pre-IPO, from 8.95 per cent to 10 percent of its total share capital. Reiterating that Grameenphone had run a thorough and compliant IPO process, the CEO thanked the authorities of the SEC and the exchanges, for their continuous support and expressed his gratitude to the PPO investors and IPO underwriters for their commitment and their patience.

Citigroup Global Markets Bangladesh Private Limited will continue to be the Private Placement Agent, Issue Manager and Lead Underwriter for our Pre-IPO and IPO.