Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited, a listed multinational company, has started expanding its business in different sectors without prior announcement.
The company has started making and marketing hand sanitizers as a new product with color business. However, investors and capital market regulators have not been notified of the business expansion. Even though it is mandatory to share price sensitive information, it was not published or announced on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
Any change in the company’s business or the expansion of different sectors or may affect the profit, is considered as price sensitive information. Investors are obliged to provide such information.
It is learned that Berger Paints has recently started making and marketing hand sanitizers. Berger’s Dhaka plant is being used to make the product. The matter has also been reported in various media through press releases.
The prevalence of Kovid-19 has increased the demand for sanitizer products. Everyone is using it regularly. Bottled hand sanitizers of various quantities have been started to capture this market. This hand sanitizer called ‘Berger Mr. Expert’ is being sold in various showrooms of Berger. But the company did not inform the investors.
Abu Zafar Sadiq, Berger’s company secretary, told “The hand sanitizer’s revenue is very low compared to the financial size of Berger’s core business. New product revenue will not have much of an impact on Berger’s revenue. That’s why we don’t think we have to provide price sensitive information. ”
“Some of Berger’s common raw materials are also being used in hand sanitizers,” he said of the change in business style and the addition of new products. That’s why I don’t think it’s necessary to disclose price sensitive information. ”
Existing law has its obligations. The Securities and Exchange Commission (Prohibition of Beneficiary Business) Rules, 1995, defines price-sensitive information as “price-sensitive” information that, if disclosed, could affect the market value of the securities concerned.
Such information is the report on the financial condition of the company Or basic information, dividend information, right shares, decision to issue bonus or similar benefits, decision to buy or sell any fixed assets of the company, establishment of BMRE or new unit of the company, fundamental changes in the functions of the company (such as production, planning, implementation) Or any other information as may be prescribed by the Commission in the Official Gazette.
It is worth mentioning that Louis Berger founded a company called Berger in England in 180 in the German city as a business of dye and natural dyes. Berger started the paint business in 1950. That’s when the activities started in Pakistan. In 1980, a factory was set up in Chittagong under joint ownership with Berger. Later the joint ownership was changed more than once. In 1980, the company started its journey under the name of Berger Paints Bangladesh.
The multinational company, which was listed in the country’s capital market in 2008, has no bank loans. According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, 95 per cent of the company’s total shares are held by entrepreneurs, 2.45 per cent at the institutional level, 1.14 per cent by foreign investors and 1.41 per cent by general investors.