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Trouble-ridden Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company (BIFC) showed a slight reduction in its sky-high losses in a delayed financial statement published on Tuesday.
The non-bank financial institution (NBFI) disclosed financial results for 2022, which it was supposed to make public by March of 2023, along with earnings in the first three quarters of 2023.
In the earnings report, it showed a 22.5 per cent year-on-year decline in loss to about Tk 763 million for 2022, without explaining how it did so.
According to company secretary Md Ahsan Ullah, the company has seen non performing loans escalate to the extent of more than 90 per cent of total loans disbursed by the NBFI.
The latest un-audited financial statement reveals that the company has only Tk 8.78 billion of assets and liability of Tk 21 billion, meaning it has negative equity of nearly Tk 12 billion.
The BIFC was one of the financial institutions robbed of by infamous financial fraud PK Halder. It fell victim to PK Halder's scam to embezzle Tk 110 billion from some NBFIs between 2009 and 2019 and launder the money overseas.
In the nine months through September, the NBFI's loss was about Tk 345.49 million, 32.5 per cent less than in the same period of the previous year.
Asked about the delay in publishing financial results, the company secretary said the authority had ordered a special audit of 25 years' financial statements.
"Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange commission (BSEC) were aware of that. We have just hired an auditor for the year 2023."
On the decline in losses, Mr Ahsan told The FE that the organisation had stopped receiving deposits and so were paying less interest than before.
The company has been in the red since 2015 and has not paid any dividend since 2014.
Meanwhile, the stock fell to Tk 9 per share on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Tuesday, 3.23 per cent lower than the previous trading day.