Bourses seek to be respondents in shareholding appeals
The Dhaka and Chittagong bourses will appeal to the High Court to make them respondents in the writ petitions that were filed by directors of different companies challenging the minimum shareholding rule.The twin bourses made the announcement after an emergency meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We were made respondents in the first writ petition, but in the three subsequent petitions we were excluded from the list,” Rakibur Rahman, president of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, told reporters after the meeting.“We should be defendants in all writ petitions for the interest of the market as well as investors, as the petitions were very much connected with the stockmarket,” he said.
Earlier, the High Court issued a rule asking the stockmarket regulator to explain within one week why a directive on minimum shareholding by listed companies' directors should not be declared illegal.A bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif issued the rules after hearing the petitions filed by the directors and sponsors of Delta Life Insurance, Phoenix Finance and Investments, Popular Life Insurance and NCC Bank.
Earlier on November 22 last year, the SEC had made it compulsory for sponsors, directors and promoters of listed companies to hold at least 2 percent stakes individually in their own companies.The commission also made it mandatory for sponsors, directors and promoters of a listed firm to jointly hold a 30 percent stake in the firm.
The SEC set a six-month deadline that ends on May 22 for the sponsors, directors and promoters, who are now jointly holding less than 30 percent and individually 2 percent shares, to acquire the rest of the amount.
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