The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday allowed Nialco Alloys Limited to raise Tk 7.5 crore to be listed on the SME platform of the country’s stock exchanges.

Nialco Alloys will be the first company to be listed on the small and medium enterprise board of the stock exchanges.

The BSEC made the decision at a commission meeting presided over by its chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, a BSEC press release said.

In accordance with BSEC (Qualified Investor Offer by Small Capital Companies) Rules, 2018, Nialco will issue 75 lakh shares at Tk 10 each to eligible investors through qualified investor offer, it said.

The company will utilise the proceeds in land development, purchasing machinery and meeting IPO expenses.

The regulator also decided that individual investor who has investment of Tk 1 crore in the market will be considered as a QI.

As per financial statements as of September 30, 2020, Nialco Alloys’ net asset value per share (NAV without revaluation reserve) and earnings per share were Tk 12.43 and Tk 0.91 respectively.

The company will not be allowed to declare bonus dividend in three years after commencing trading on the SME board.

MTB Capital Limited is the issue manager of the IPO.

The BSEC on Thursday issued an order, exempting Midland Bank from complying with a provision of its public issue rules.

Earlier, the bank decided to raise Tk 70 crore through an IPO. The bank sought the exemption before applying for the IPO to the commission.

According to the order, 35 lakh out of the total 7 crore shares to be allotted by offering to the employees of Midland Bank must be considered as part of its IPO.

The employees of the bank may subscribe their portion of shares during the period of general public subscription and subscribed shares must be kept lock-in for two years from the date of issuance of prospectus or close of subscription, whichever comes later, it said.