Robi has received approval Initial Public Offering(IPO) from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission as the second mobile phone operator in the country after Grameenphone.
As a result, they will be able to withdraw Taka 523.79 crore from the stock markets of Dhaka and Chittagong.
Of this, Taka 387.74 crore will be collected from the IPO and Taka 136 crore 5 lakh 9340 will be collected through the distribution of shares of the company among the officers and employees.
Robi, the country's second-largest operator, has confirmed the news.
Robi had earlier applied to BSEC for approval on March 2 after getting approval from its parent company Axiata.
Initially, they expected approval at the end of the year, but it is learned that they got it a little earlier.
Robi will issue a total of 52.36 crore shares worth Taka 10. Of which 36 crore 8 lakh 42 thousand shares will be allotted in the market and the rest will be distributed among the officers and employees of Robi. Robi appointed IDLC Investment Limited as their issue manager for their IPO.
According to the prospectus given with Robi's application to BSEC, the current paid up capital of the operator is Taka 4,614.14 crore. After the IPO, it will stand at Taka 5,236 crore. 10 percent of the paid-up capital will go to the capital market.
According to the audited financial report for 2019, Robi's earnings per share was 4 paise and net asset value per share (NAVPS) was Taka 12. 74.
At present, out of the total shares of Robi, Axiata Investments Limited has 7.8 per cent and Bharti International (Singapore) PTE Limited has 31.3 per cent.
Robi's pre-tax profit in 2019 was Taka 378 crore 90 lakh. Which was Taka 267 crore 96 lakh in the previous year.
That year they paid Taka 362 crore in taxes. As a result, their net profit stood at Taka 16 crore 90 lakh at this time, which was Taka 214 crore 73 lakh in the previous year.
As of last December, there are 4 crore 73 lakh active subscribers Robi maintains, which is about 30 percent of the total effective mobile connections in the country.
Concerned people said that in the beginning Robi gave two conditions but BSEC did not take them into consideration. Robi had two conditions - to withdraw the existing tax on the turnover of the mobile company or to reduce the tax rate from 2% to .75%. The second condition is to reduce the corporate tax rate of the listed mobile companies from 40 percent to 35 percent.
In 1997, the company started working under the telecom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) Aktel brand. In 2010, the name of the company was changed to Robi Axiata Limited.
After joining Airtel Bangladesh in 2016, the company emerged as the second largest telecom operator and retained the same name. The company made a profit last year after several years of losses due to this consolidation.
Malaysian telecom giant Axiata Group Berhad owns 68.69 per cent stake in Robi Axiata. Other shareholders of the company are Delhi-based Bharti Airtel and Tokyo-based NTT Docomo.