For most Bangladeshi corporate consultants, Thursday is a day to push by the week’s closing work hours with the promise of a weekend spent with family and chums. But for Adnan Huda, the manager running officer of UCB Stock Brokerage, 9 December 2021, a Thursday, changed into an episode of high-stakes corporate drama that left a jog of losses and allegations.
The day started mechanically for Huda till a WhatsApp name at 12:30pm from Adnan Imam, chairman of Genex Infosys Ltd, changed every little thing.
Imam requested Huda to facilitate the acquisition of virtually 61 lakh pre-IPO shares of Genex at a price of Tk172.50 per part on behalf of United Business Monetary institution PLC (UCB). The transaction, Imam talked about, enthusiastic accounts belonging to his sister and brother-in-law, and supporting documents had already been sent to the bank.
Huda changed into haunted. The attach a matter to got here with out prior quiz or formal approval. Upholding corporate protocol, he told Imam that he may maybe presumably maybe no longer proceed with out authorisation from the bank’s competent authorities.
But what passed off next changed into the relaxation however favorite. Unknown to Huda, Imam changed into no longer by myself throughout the name – Anisuzzaman Chowdhury (Rony), then chairman of UCB’s executive committee, changed into with him.
Seconds later, Rony took over the dialog, instructing Huda to compose the acquisition. Rony assured him the deal had been licensed by UCB’s board of administrators, per the bank’s internal investigation that published the controversial transaction and its jog of approvals.
Moments later, a messenger arrived at UCB Stock Brokerage’s Gulshan place of job with documents: minutes of UCB’s 465th board assembly and extracts from the 464th assembly. The styles confirmed board acclaim for the transaction at the mark proposed by the seller.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohammad Rashedul Islam, managing director and CEO of UCB Asset Management, also remained in the darkish. Tasked with advising UCB’s capital market portfolio, Islam easiest changed into responsive to the massive transaction gradual that afternoon when he seen an unusually easy alternate in Genex Infosys shares in the bank’s proprietary portfolio.
Within the preliminary proposal offered to UCB’s board of administrators on 24 October 2021, the sellers of Genex Infosys shares offered a 10% reduce price on the present market price. On the other hand, by 30 November 2021, when the closing proposal changed into placed prior to the board for approval, the phrases had changed – the shares had been to be purchased today market mark, without a reduce price.
The sellers, confident in their space, saw no motive to give a concession when they had the backing of UCB’s most influential family, which had dominated the bank’s board for almost 15 years.
The numbers that emerged from this deal now forged a prolonged shadow over UCB. The bank purchased 6,083,000 shares at a full mark of Tk105.15 crore. As of 26 September 2024, these shares had been price lower than Tk27 crore, leaving UCB with a staggering lack of over Tk78 crore – a blow borne by depositors’ money.
The Bangladesh Monetary institution, in an inspection dispute per 31 December 2022, found that UCB violated regulations when purchasing Genex Infosys shares by failing to effect prior approval from the central bank.
“The matter changed into ordinary and ordinary,” the dispute acknowledged, noting that UCB performed no excessive diagnosis prior to the acquisition of shares in the listed firm.
On 20 November this year, Sharif Zahir, UCB’s present chairman, wrote to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) alleging that Imam, with connections to influential figures in the bank, had secured Tk2,000 crore in loans from UCB, breaching principles with the motivate of allies cease to passe land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed.
The letter talked about Adnan Imam historical a lot of of his entities corresponding to “Genex Infosys, Genex Infrastructure, A&P Project, AWR Traits, and AWR Exact Property” to stable the loans. These loans had been granted in violation of the bank’s credit rating norms.
Zahir alleged that the deal changed into designed for private compose, pointing to imaginable illicit connections between the sellers and the passe board members.
He urged the ACC to begin an intensive investigation into these irregularities and rob real action against all other folks enthusiastic, together with passe minister Saifuzzaman, his brother Anisuzzaman Chowdhury and the passe board members, sellers Amer and Zahara Rasul, Adnan, and others.
He also urged accountability to offer protection to the interests of the bank’s shareholders and depositors.
What Adnan Imam instantaneous TBS
Adnan Imam, chairman of Genex Infosys Dinky, has accused the present board of UCB of focusing on him unfairly in a monetary dispute. Talking to TBS, Imam claimed, “The board sees me as a straightforward target – an expatriate Bangladeshi who would no longer retaliate.”
He talked about internal conflicts within UCB’s old and present leadership may maybe presumably maybe power the allegations. He pointed to Sharif Zahir, the present chairman, speculating that Zahir can also occupy unresolved disorders with the bank’s old board of administrators. “They’re attempting to hyperlink me with the old board and make me a scapegoat,” Imam alleged.
The businessman criticised UCB’s handling of broader disorders, claiming the bank has disregarded most well-known challenges, together with easy loans to predominant buyers, and as an alternate furious about implicating him.
Imam also puzzled UCB’s resolution to abet onto Genex Infosys shares for a long interval as an alternate of promoting them when the costs had been truly helpful.
“I stay in a foreign nation however invested in Bangladesh and created jobs for 4,000 of us,” he talked about, expressing his frustration. “Now I am being harassed and compelled into default. It is demotivating, and my enterprise is at stake.”
When requested about his ties to Anisuzzaman Chowdhury Rony, a key figure in UCB’s old board, Imam described him as a prolonged-time friend.
