Investment Corporation of Bangladesh

Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) was established on 1 October 1976 under the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh Ordinance No 40 of 1976. It is an investment bank established to accelerate the pace of industrialization and develop a sound securities market in Bangladesh. Initially, the authorized and paid-up capital of the corporation was Tk 200 million divided into 2 million shares of Tk 100 each. The authorized and paid-up capital were 1000 million on 31 December 2019.

At present ICB is preserving three categories of reserve fund- general reserve, building reserve and profit equalization reserve funds. ICB has brought reform in its strategy and policy for conducting commercial activities after forming and managing a subsidiary company under the Investments Corporation of Bangladesh (Amendment) Act 2000 (the Act No 24 of 2000). ICB is enlisted in Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges.

The share ownership structure of ICB capital as on June 30, 2008 was as follows

Shareholder	No. of Shareholders	No. of Shares	Percentage
Government of Bangladesh	1	1350000	27.00
State Owned Commercial Banks	4	1136900	22.74
Development Financial Institutions	2	1281550	25.63
Insurance Corporations	2	617781	12.35
Denationalized Private Commercial Banks	2	454263	9.08
Private Commercial Banks	3	28286	0.57
Foreign Commercial Banks	2	110	0.01
First BSRS Mutual Fund	1	5750	0.12
Other Institutions	12	17454	0.34
General Public	1109	107906	2.16
Total	1138	5000000	100.00

Initially, the activities of ICB were limited to underwriting of primary issue of shares and debentures of various companies, providing loans and managing investors scheme. Later, ICB expanded its scope of activities considering the demand of capital market and started financing to set up and develop industries. Presently, ICB is providing debenture loan to trading houses and industrial units. It is also expending loan support against unit certificates on the other hand ICB is contributing in improving capital market development and capital flow by lease financing for procuring capital machinery of instructive, managing unit fund and mutual fund and participating directly is transaction of shares and securities in the stock market. ICB's ongoing lease financing program began in 1999. Up to 2009 it has marketed eight mutual funds of Tk 175 million out of the 24 mutual funds enlisted of Tk 10,996 million in the stock exchange. The total number of investors invested their money in the ICB run mutual funds was 31,733 till 31 December 2009. Since 1998 ICB started providing advance credit against ICB unit and mutual fund, and ICB AMCL certificate. Under this scheme, unit holders can take advance on easy condition keeping their unit certificates as lien. ICB Securities Trading Company Limited launched its activities on 13 August 2002 and by now has become the leading broker in terms of the volume of transaction in Dhaka and Chittagong stock Exchanges.

Basic Facts and Economic Indicators (In Million Taka)

Indicators	2018	2019	2020
Authorized Capital	10000	10000	10000
Paid up Capital	6645	6977	7674
Reserved Fund	31404	1461	35919
Deposits	110065	108880	108451
a) Call Deposits	1680	1930	1530
b) Term Deposits	108385	106950	106921
Loans and Advances	24965	31888	33137
Investment	115203	123511	145572
Total Asset	171096	184624	201157
Total Income	17024	13352	11643
Total Expenditure	10347	11546	9799
Foreign Currency Trading	0	0	0
a) Export	0	0	0
b) Import	0	0	0
c) Remittance	0	0	0
Total Manpower	590	599	665
a) Officers	398	406	468
b) Staff	192	193	197
Correspondents Banks	0	0	0
Total Branches (in numbers)	7	7	7
a) Domestic	7	7	7
b) Overseas	0	0	0
Agriculture Credit
Loan Disbursed	0	0	0
Realised	0	0	0
Industrial Credit
Loan Disbursed	8174	6711	450
Realsied	618	1201	1390
Loan Outstanding by Sector
Agriculture and Fisheries and Forestry	0	0	0
Industry	0	0	0
Trade and Commerce	0	0	0
Poverty Reduction	0	0	0
CSR	12	2	0

Source Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Finance, Banking and Financial Institution Division, Barshik Protibedon [Annual Report on Banks and Financial Institutions], 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Having the headquarters in Dhaka, ICB has altogether eight branch office one each in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Bogra. The headquarters have 31 departments under four principal wings, which is run by the leadership of the Managing Director, its chief executive. The total manpower of the corporation was 665in December 2019 of which 468 were officers and the rest were staff. A ten-member Board of Directors is responsible for the overall management and policy formulation of ICB.

Three subsidiary companies of ICB were constituted after the amendment of the ICB Ordinance 1976 and the promulgation of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (Amendment) Act 2000 (Act 40 of 2000), and the Capital Market Development programme (CMDP), a joint institutive of the Asian Development Bank and the government of Bangladesh. These companies are: ICB Capital Management Limited, ICB Asset Management Company Limited and ICB Securities Trading Company Limited went into operation 2002 in the fields of merchant banking, mutual fund management and security exchange.

The corporation has developed a high-tech computer set-up and improved its own Software, Broadband Internet connections have been provided to various divisions and departments of ICB. Interested persons can visit the corporation’s website www.icb.gove.bd any time to know and download data and information of ICB.

As a development-financing organization, ICB has created a development fund of US$ 200 million during the Commonwealth Summit hold in 1997 to increase investment in SAARC counties. A subsidiary organization owned by Commonwealth Development Fund (CDC), registered in Mauritius operates the fund named South Asian Regional Fund (SARF). CDC has added a capital of US$ 50 million in this fund. ICB has active involvement and effective communication with SARF. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]