TREC licence of Tristar Securities revoked

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has revoked the TREC licence of Tristar Securities only 44 months after it was issued due to the firm's failure to maintain the required capital.

However, the owner of Tristar Securities,

Md. Zillur Rahman Mridha told The Financial Express that he intentionally chose not to meet the requirement since the firm turned out to be a loss-making concern.

He added that he now wished to focus on his core business of garment manufacturing and export.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Monday announced the regulatory decision on its website.

The acting managing director and CEO of the Dhaka bourse, A.G.M Sattique Ahmed Shah said, "They [Tristar

Securities] failed to maintain the equity capital required by the law. We told them several times to inject fresh funds to meet the capital requirement but they did not respond."

According to the law, a company must have a minimum of Tk 30 million as paid-up capital to secure a TREC licence and the firm will never be allowed to have equity capital less than 75 per cent of the initial paid-up capital.

Tristar Securities had to ensure more than TK 22.5 million as equity capital.

Mr Shah said equity capital of Tristar Securities had fallen below 53 per cent of the paid-up capital. "So, we decided to revoke their licence."

The managing director of Tristar Securities, Mr Mridha said, "Our brokerage business was not profitable. The market was in a bad condition most of the time after we received our licence. We were counting losses and so decided to divest from the business."

He is also managing director of ABA Group. This group has 5 subsidiaries -- Vintage Denim Apparels, ABA Fashion, Vintage Denim Studio, Pimkie Apparels and Vintage denim, according to the website of ABA Group.

One of the senior brokers of the DSE said many people had grabbed a TREC licence during the previous regime not

to do business but to sell the licence to make a huge profit later on. In present circumstances, the short-term profit is not possible with the market's persistent decline ,he added.

Tristar Securities got their TREC licence in September 2021.

A TREC is a certificate issued by a stock exchange giving the right to trade on the exchange's platform.

Mr Mridha claimed the firm had already cleared all dues of its clients.

Meanwhile, the DSE asked all investors and clients of Tristar Securities to settle transactions with Tristar Securities.

They have also been asked to submit written complaints, if any, along with all relevant supporting documents to the DSE within May 20.

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