Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC has initiated the auction process for the mortgaged assets of Aramit Cement PLC, which is owned by former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, valued at approximately Tk 538.93 crore (as of July 21) because of unpaid loans. An auction announcement was made by the bank from its Jubilee Road branch in Chittagong on September 4. Interested buyers have until September 28 to participate.
As per the notice, the auctioned properties encompass 15 acres of land located in the Kalurghat Heavy Industrial Area in Chittagong, along with the factories and facilities of Aramit Cement, Aramit Power Limited, Aramit Steel Pipes Limited, and Aramit Thai Aluminum Limited. Bank records indicate that the company mortgaged around 6.61 acres of land. The loan, which began at Tk 50 crore in the fiscal year 2022, escalated to Tk 423 crore in 2023.
A senior official of Islami Bank said that the bank had given the loan to the company at the instigation of the former land minister, but the bank took this step to collect the loan in accordance with the law as it did not pay the installments on time.
One of the sponsor shareholders of Aramit Cement is former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Jabed, who holds 14.97 percent shares in the company. His wife Rukhmila Zaman was previously the company’s managing director. Other sponsor shareholders include Aramit Limited (19.29%), Bangladesh Development Bank (6.43%) and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (5.23%).
Aramit Cement is in legal trouble not only for loans from Islami Bank but also from several other banks. The Chittagong Financial Debt Court has frozen the company’s bank accounts after a case was filed by Bank Asia in January this year. In addition, Social Islami Bank has filed a cheque dishonor case due to an outstanding loan of Tk 33 million.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange inspection team found that the company’s factory had stopped production on July 25, 2025. A senior company official said that the production was forced to stop due to the lack of raw materials, liquidity crisis and failure to repay loans as banks were unwilling to open LCs. The company’s total liabilities are about Tk 800 crore, a large part of which is interest.
Aramit Cement has been making losses for the last three fiscal years. It paid a 5 percent cash dividend in the latest fiscal year 2022, but is currently trading in the ‘Z’ category due to its failure to pay dividends.
On Tuesday, September 9, Aramit Cement’s share price fell 6.62 percent to Tk 12.70 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. The company’s share price in the past one year was Tk 18.10 and the lowest was Tk 10.50.
