Special Corporate Investigation
Those who once upon a time exported fabric to global leader Princes Groppen As (Norway), New Wave Group SA (Switzerland), Bonfrix (Germany), Silex Vyvoz A Dovos SRO (Czech Republic), Lidi (Franc) and Splec now the owners fled the country due to avoid Chittagong Money Lend Court cases. All the sponsor directors of Regent Textile Mills Limited (RTML) fled from Bangladesh leaving over Tk 4000 crore default loan at different banks and operation of their group of companies at stake.
The chairman Md Yakub Ali and directors Md Yasin Ali, Mashraf Habib, Salman Habib and Tanvir Habib all are also responsible for a huge money laundering allegations against them, banking sources said. Regent Textile one of the promising factory owned by Chittagong based Habib Group has been shut down since last couple of years as owners failed to generate working capital and pay wages.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited (DSE) on Thursday informed that the bourse officials visited Regent Textile Mills limited factory premises and they found the company operation closed. The DSE made the announcement at its wall for the awareness of the general share holders. Different banks and financial institutions have filed a total of seven cases against the group directors among which Eastern Bank, IDLC, Premier Leasing, Basic Bank and National Bank file cases at money lend court. Other banks including Dhaka Bank Limited woes Tk 350 crore, One Bank Tk 300 crore, Basic Bank Tk 173 crore, National Bank Tk 150 crore and Alarafah Islami Bank woes Tk 50 crore. Among the default loan IDLC finance alone woes Tk 46 crore to Regent Textile.
The Regent Textile was established in 2006, is a 100% export-oriented textile mill for woven fabrics and home furnishing items situated at Kalurghat, Chattogram. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) approved its Initial Public Offering in August 2015 to raise Tk125 crore from the capital market. The RTML could not approve any dividend for its shareholders since 2021 and has also been unable to publish any disclosure from 30 June 2021. The sponsors and directors of the company jointly held 54.55% of the shares, institutions 4.69%, and the general public held 40.76% shares in the company.
Recently US business conglomerate Wilmington Trust Company filed an application against the company for being a guarantor of a substantial amount of dues of Publicly listed Regent Textile Mills Ltd, one of the 11 debt-ridden companies of the Chattogram-based Habib Group.
The company proposed a liquidation proposal for selling off assets and using the proceeds to pay off creditors and shareholders.
Once upon a time Regent Textile’s buyers were globally reputed Red Cats Asia Limited, Princes Groppen As (Norway), New Wave Group SA (Switzerland), Bonfrix (Germany), Silex Vyvoz A Dovos SRO (Czech Republic), Lidi (Franc) and Splec.
Its product variety ranges from 50 grams per square meter (GSM) to 450 GSM. The Company offers 100% cotton woven fabrics of export quality. It is equipped with infrastructural arrangement with composite manufacturing facilities having full coverage of weaving, dying, printing, sewing, finishing, and packing procedures.
It was running with approximately 12.00 million meters weaving and approximately 14.00 million meters dying and printing capacity per year. The textile mills hold a capacity to produce approximately 40,000-50,000 meters of fabrics per day.
It has over 2500 workers before Corona Pandemic emerges but the workers were retrenched after 2021. Now a few security guards left.
