Bangladesh Welding Electrodes (BD Welding), a company listed on the stock market, is actively seeking new strategic investors to overcome its long-standing financial crisis and restart its closed factory. The company’s board of directors has expressed strong hope that, with a new investor, they will be able to rehire employees, stabilize production activities, and pay the outstanding listing fees to the stock exchange in installments, according to company sources.

Listed in 1999, BD Welding regularly paid its annual listing fees until 2012. However, facing growing operational and financial difficulties, the company stopped paying fees from 2013, accumulating a large amount of arrears. The situation worsened due to natural disasters—until 2017, the company’s old factory in Chattogram suffered repeated floods and landslides, with 5–6 feet of water causing severe damage to raw materials and machinery. Although all assets were insured with Federal Insurance Company Limited, the insurer rejected the claim. Later, BD Welding received a court order for Tk 2 crore in compensation, but the case remains unresolved as the insurance company appealed.

Since 2016, the company’s production activities have been completely shut down. After failing to repay bank loan installments, the factory was eventually put up for auction. However, the then managing director managed to halt the auction process, and through an EGM, the company decided to sell only the factory land excluding the building structure and machinery to repay the bank’s liabilities. The machinery was then moved to newly purchased land in Dhamrai, Dhaka. But due to insufficient funds, the company could not build a factory shed or reinstall the equipment, leaving production suspended indefinitely. During this time, all employees except two office staff were placed on unpaid leave.

Throughout this prolonged financial crisis, significant arrears accumulated from office rent, utility bills, and annual fees owed to the DSE, CSE, and CDBL. As the financial pressure intensified, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) intervened in 2021, appointing two independent directors and imposing a ban on selling or transferring company assets. Later, after appointing three more independent directors and restructuring the board, the new board lifted the ban on transferring the Chattogram property and completed the process.

The restructured board has since divided the remaining land in Dhamrai, hired three security guards, and begun paying overdue salaries to the managing director and three office staff members. However, the company’s former managing director, who had long been battling cancer, passed away on January 3, 2023, adding to the company’s challenges. The new board is now prioritizing the search for a strategic investor to quickly restart production, bring employees back to work, and restore financial stability. In addition, BD Welding has requested an extension from regulatory authorities to pay its outstanding listing fees and other dues until new investment is secured.