Sonali Life distributes dividend of Tk 2cr among new shareholders as well

Publish: 5:39 PM, May 18, 2022 | Update: 5:39 PM, May 18, 2022

Business Correspondent

Sonali Life Insurance Company has distributed an additional dividend worth around Tk 2 crore among its new shareholders.

Under insurance company law, companies have to pay dividends among the shareholders calculated on the record date. The board of Sonali Life Insurance has calculated the number of shareholders and distributed dividends among them.

At the same time since many new investors have invested in the company soon after it came into the Initial Public Offering (IPO) by buying shares, SLI has distributed dividend worth Tk 1 crore 90 lakh again among its 1, 53,000 shareholders.

The Board of directors of the company had decided to pay the additional amount of dividend to keep the interest of the investors as per the instruction of the regulatory authority, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

Earlier, the company declared a 10 per cent cash dividend for all investor shareholders for the year ended on December 31st, 2020.

Accordingly, it distributed the dividend worth Tk 2 crore and 85 lakh among all its investor shareholders in June 2021 on the record date as per the company’s valuation.

Besides, the SLI Board had also recommended a 2.0 per cent interim cash dividend for all shareholders as on the record date set on 4th August  based on the commendable performance of the company for the FY 2021.

Meanwhile, as the process of the company’s joining in IPO was under process and which was also completed by June 2021, a good number of investors made their investment with SLI buying its share.

The regulatory authority then asked SLI authority to pay a dividend among the newly added investors as per the ratio, means, equal to the dividend of investor shareholders, 10 % cash.

Accordingly, SLI distributed the dividend among the new shareholders on April 2022, showing honour to the instruction of BSEC.

While talking to the daily, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company Mir Rashed Bin Aman said that their company always keeps the interest of the investors, that’s why, when immediately after completion of the process of IPO, a good number of investors bought shares of Sonali Life, although it was coincided with the record date as per the company’s valuation.

When questions came about payment of the dividend

among the newly added general shareholders, the SLI board decided to pay the dividend to them.

“And at the same time the BSEC also guided us to pay the dividend. That’s why finally we did it”, Rashed added.

Sonali Life is the first company whose shares were allotted under the newly introduced pro-rata basis.

The company raised Tk 190 million from the capital market by issuing 19 million ordinary shares under the fixed price method.

The company’s paid-up capital is Tk 475 million, authorised capital is Tk. 1.0 billion and the total number of securities is 47.50 million.

The sponsor directors own 54.58 per cent stake in the company while the institutional investors own 4.37 percent and the general public 41.05 percent