Directors of 46 listed companies now under SEC pressure to raise their share holding to 30 percent are trying to reduce the prices of shares so that they can buy them back at lower prices.
These directors are working against the interests of small investors by manipulating share prices so that they can pick up the required 30 percent as cheaply as possible.
These directors have a long history of cheating and deceiving small investors. A few of them were caught with their pants down in 1996. But they went scot-free. Now many other manipulators are taking a leaf out of the book of the 1996 villains.
One of the 46 companies under the SEC scanner is Beximco Pharma of Salman F. Rahman. Its directors hold only 3.8 percent of shares. They sold the rest violating SEC regulations fuelling the decline in stock index since January 2010.
Such companies are acting against the government?s initiative ? well-meaning but rather late in the day ? to stabilise the markets and bring back investors? confidence by making big companies accountable to small investors.
On Sunday the markets plunged by 308 points exposing the greed of big companies in the face of small investors? soaring expectations after Wednesday?s package of incentives announced by Securities and Exchange Commission.
Market insiders accuse the 46 companies of fleecing investors to line their own pockets by triggering panic sale of shares held by small investors.
The government has ordered 46 companies to pick up 56.71 crore shares from the market within six months. As per Thursday prices, the companies will have to spend Taka 5612 crores. Hence they are resorting to dubious means to meet SEC?s directives.
One of the best steps announced so far is to draw black money into stocks without asking questions about the source. Any delay in implementing it will trigger the exodus of Bangladesh?s undisclosed and unaccounted wealth to safe havens like Malaysia.
If small investors are cheated again and reduced to poverty, they will be forced to commit crimes destroying the law and order situation in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. Directors with a history of cheating small investors will not be able to sleep peacefully in their air-conditioned bedrooms at night.
Announcing 21 measures is not enough. The watchdog must not only bark but it be ready to bite those working against the interests of small investors.
It?s high time to implement the recommendations of the Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled Committee and bring to justice the culprits of the 2010 share market scam to put the fear of law in the hearts of today?s scamsters.
Source: daily-sun.com
Read More on prothom alo news
No comments:
Post a Comment