Investment Corporation of Bangladesh

Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) 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 industrialisation and develop a sound securities market in Bangladesh. Initially, the authorised and paid up capital of the corporation was Tk 200 million divided into 2 million shares of Tk 100 each. The authorised and paid up capital were 1000 million on 31 December 2009. The pattern of share ownership and classification of shareholders are in the following as on 30 June 2008:

At present ICB is preserving three categories of reserve fund- general reserve, building reserve and profit equalisation reserve funds. The balance of these reserve funds altogether was Tk 2146 million on 31 December 2009. 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.

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
Denationalised 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 programme began in 1999. Upto 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 became the leading broker in terms of the volume of transaction in Dhaka and Chittagong stock Exchanges.

Table  Basic facts and economic indicators (in million Taka).

Indicators	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Authorised capital	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Paid up capital	500	500	500	500	500	1000
Reserved Fund	691	841	1006	1226	1646	2146
Deposits	8519	9438	9500	15799	16415	21550
Loans and Advance	3960	3802	4374	4383	4609	5725
Lease financing	114	226	747	751	935	974
Investment	4034	4083	4467	4799	4784	7350
Total Asset				23251	25427	32445
Total income	1376	1704	1664	2459	4370	3642
Total Expenditure	1210	1485	1432	2156	3358	2526
Profit	167	219	232	302	1012	1116
Total Manpower:	365	396	411	420	465	464
a) Officers	234	254	261	266	283	290
b) Staff	131	142	150	154	182	174
Total Branch (in numbers)	7	7	7	7	7	7
Subsidiary company	3	3	3	3	3	3
Out standing Loan				571	285	262
Loan Recovered				2859	5120	5753

Source Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Finance, Banking and Financial Institution Division, Bank o Arthik Prothisthan Samuher Karjaboli [Annual Report on Banks and Financial Institutions], 2004-05 to 2009-10.

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 464 in December 2009 of which 290 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 corporations website www.icb.gove.bd any time to know and download data and information of ICB.

As a development-financing organisation, 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 organisation 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]