Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 29 Fri. June 25, 2004  
   
Front Page


Deal signed to sell Rupali Bank


Bangladesh yesterday signed an agreement with a British consortium to prepare the sale of state-owned Rupali Bank (RB) by the end of the year to satisfy conditions attached to the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans.

The process of privatising the RB may start at the end of this month in a bid to complete it by this year. The consortium led by GBRW Ltd., will be paid $1.8 million by the government to assess the value of the bank, account for the RB's assets and liabilities and the strategy for the privatisation process.

The RB sell-off is the first initiative of the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) reform taken under a WB project titled Enterprise Growth and Bank Modernisation Project.

Under the project, other NCBs including the Agrani Bank will go to private management and advisers will be appointed for the Sonali and Janata Banks.

The agreement was signed at the Finance Division at the National Secretariat.