Grameenphone Files Final IPO Application

Grameenphone yesterday submitted the final prospectus of its initial public offering (IPO), largest in Bangladesh, to the stocks regulator to raise $65 million (Tk 449 crore) from the capital market.

The submission of Grameenphone prospectus, which is awaiting approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is seen by market analysts as an encouragement to other big companies to go public.

If approved, Grameenphone will be the first telecom company to list on the market, said Yawer Sayeed, managing director of AIMS of Bangladesh.

“It will also encourage other big companies to come to the stock market. We look forward to the Grameenphone issue,” he added.

In line with the IPO proposal, Grameenphone has offered each share at Tk 7, including Tk 6 in premium.

Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Oddvar Hesjedal handed over the final IPO prospectus to SEC Chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi. SEC Executive Director Farhad Ahmed, Grameenphone Board members Dipal Barua from Grameen Telecom and Per Erik Hyland from Telenor, and Grameenphone Chief Financial Officer Arif Al Islam were also present.

“We have received the prospectus of IPO proposal of Grameenphone,” Farhad Ahmed told The Daily Star.

“We will scrutinise the prospectus now and take necessary steps to approve the prospectus," said the SEC executive director.

In a statement, Grameenphone said it has completed the marketing of a pre-IPO private placement of its shares amounting to $60 million to local institutional investors on December 4. The pre-IPO placement offer was over-subscribed by three times due to strong support from more than 50 local institutional investors.

For the first time in Bangladesh, book-building methodology was used to discover prices of the share. From a range of Tk 7 to Tk 9 the final price set for the private placement offering was Tk 7.4 while the IPO price was set at Tk 7. The face value of the share has been set at Tk 1.

“We are proud of our achievement in having reached this milestone. We remain committed to contributing to the development of the capital markets of Bangladesh and look forward to a successful completion of the largest IPO in the country,” said Hesjedal.

Citigroup Global Mar-kets Bangladesh Private Ltd is the global coordinator, lead underwriter, placement agent and issue manager for Grameenphone's capital raising in Bangladesh.

In July, Grameenphone finalised its plan to raise $300 million (Tk 2,058 crore) -- $150 million from the stock market and the rest through private placement or pre-IPO.

The company, later in October, said it might cut its planned IPO to $125 million -- more than half from stock market and the remainder through private placement.

Grameenphone, which launched operations in 1997, is 62 percent owned by Norway's Telenor and 38 percent held by Grameen Telecom. The operator had been under pressure from Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commi-ssion and SEC to list on the capital market.