Grameenphone soars 250% on Dhaka bourse debut

[Naveed Yaseen]

DHAKA: Shares in Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone company Grameenphone soared more than 250 per cent on their first day of trading on Monday, propelling the benchmark stock index to a new record high.

The company, majority-owned by Telenor of Norway, last month raised 71 million dollars by selling a 10 percent stake or 69.44 million shares in the impoverished country’s largest-ever initial public offering, or IPO.

Grameenphone shares closed up 253 per cent at 177.3 taka from their listing price of 70 taka after hitting an intra-day high of 195 taka.

The strong performance drove up the benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index by 22.61 percent, or 764.88 points, to a new all-time high of 4,148.12 points.

The index shattered its previous record peak set in 1996 of 3,600 points.

“The Dhaka stock market has set new records thanks to the debut of Grameenphone,” Dhaka Stock Exchange president Rakibur Rahman told AFP.

“Its arrival has created a new base for the market,” he said.

Grameenphone shares made up about 20 per cent of Monday’s turnover of 7.38 billion taka (107 million dollars).

The market capitalisation of the Dhaka Stock Exchange hit 1.764 trillion taka (25 billion dollars) as Grameenphone’s shares alone added 3.4 billion dollars, figures showed.

Grameenphone is 55.8-per cent owned by Telenor with the rest held by Grameen Telecom, a sister company of micro-finance giant Grameen Bank which was set up by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

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