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The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) incurred losses for last two consecutive quarters ended by December, 2019 due to 'decrease' in capital profit and 'increase' in loan interest.
The state-run investment company reported a loss of Tk 0.21 in EPS for October-December (Q2), 2019 against the earnings per share (EPS) of Tk 0.20 for October-December 2018.
Md. Abul Hossain, managing director at ICB, said the company incurred losses mainly because of its market supportive role.
"The ICB has loans worth Tk 107 billion taken from different organisations and capital market refinancing scheme for the purpose of market support. We are paying interest for the loans amid the declining trend of the capital market," Mr. Hossain told the FE on Monday.
He said there is a large amount of saleable shares in ICB portfolios but ICB is not selling those shares to avert the negative impact on the stock market.
"We will overcome the loss when the market will be stabilised. We want financial support without any interest or with very nominal interest from the government for the sake of the market," said Mr. Hossain.
He also said ICB has already become able to reduce the loss for October-December (Q2), 2019 compared to the loss incurred for July-September, 2019.
Earlier, the company also incurred a loss of Tk 1.93 in EPS for July-September 2019 as against Tk. 0.41 for July-September 2018.
The consolidated loss of the state-run ICB was Tk 1.96 per share for July-December 2019 as against the EPS of Tk 0.57 for July-December 2018.
The company reported its consolidated NOCFPS was Tk. (3.41), a negative value, for July-December 2019 as against Tk. 3.98 for July-December 2018.
"The EPS and NOCFPS dipped due to decrease in capital profit and increase in loan interest," the ICB said in a disclosure regarding its un-audited statement for Q2.
The company's consolidated net asset value (NAV) also declined sharply for the period ended on December 31, 2019 compared to the value calculated as on June 30, 2019.
The company's consolidated NAV per share was Tk. 12.43 as on December 31, 2019 and Tk. 40.52 as on June 30, 2019.
"The NAV has declined due to decrease of market price of share investment portfolio," said the ICB.
Earlier, the ICB sought a fund of Tk 50 billion from the government to support the stock market.
The state-run ICB disbursed 10 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2019.
Earlier, the state-run ICB reported consolidated EPS of Tk 0.86, consolidated NAV per share of Tk. 44.57 and consolidated NOCFPS of Tk. 0.30 for the year ended on June 30, 2019 as against Tk. 5.97, Tk. 54.54 and Tk. 2.64 respectively for the same period of the previous year.
The company then said its EPS declined due to decrease in capital profit and increase in loan interest.
On Monday, the price of the ICB's shares declined 3.71 per cent or Tk 3.2 to close at Tk 82.10 each on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).