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Abu Dhabi group plans investment in Dhaka

DHAKA - An Abu Dhabi business group will make a formal proposal next month for investing in Bangladesh's 6-7 potential sectors, the Board of Investment sources said in Dhaka on Friday.

The group, owned by leading business people from the Middle East country, has already decided to enter the Bangladesh market opening one of its financial arms, Bank Alfalah Limited. The group has decided to invest in financial and telecommunications sectors through Bank Alfalah Ltd and Warid Telecom. These two companies have a lion's share in the group. The Shamil Bank is now processing the hand-over of its Bangladesh operations to the Bank Alfalah and the entire process is expected to complete in next couple of months.

If given due permission, Bank Alfalah said it would expand its operations in Bangladesh. The chairman of the group, is expected to visit Bangladesh some time in next February to finalise the investment proposal of his company in various sectors. The group officials expressed their interest in investing in Bangladesh during a visit of the BoI executive chairman, Mahmudur Rahman, to the UAE last week.

The group in 1997 acquired Bank Alfalah in Pakistan, which now has an asset base of $2 billion, and also took over the United Bank there in 2002. It also acquired a mobile GSP licence in Pakistan for starting commercial operations next year.

The group also decided to divest its 20pc stake of Bank Alfalah in the stock market this year and the number of applications received from the public broke all time records, it claimed.

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