Interested investors now can apply for shares of the company until February 9. GIL opened its IPO subscription on January 29 and its closing date was February 2.

The company extended its subscription schedule up to February 6 as investors could not apply for the IPO due to 60-hour hartal from January 29 to 31 that badly hi| business, banking and other economic activities.

Considering the overall situation, the company extended the subscription period up to February 6 taking xermission from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But a daylong hartal was observed again on February 3 and another two-day strike begins from today called by the opposition in protest of the grenade attacks on January 27 in Habiganj.

"Some bankers to the issue that were supposed to receive money from the investors could not work on those days. As hartal will be observed on Saturday and Sunday again, we thought of giving the investors another opportunity to apply," said a GIL official. "We are expecting good response from the investors."

Global Insurance offered 900,000 shares of Tk 100 each (at par) totaling Tk 9 crore. As per Public Issue Rules 1998, the company kept 10 percent of the total shares amounting to Tk 90 lakh reserved for the non-resident Bangladeshis (NZBs) and the rest Tk 8.10 crore as offered to the public.

The company made it mandatory for the public that those who do not have beneficial oner account (BO account) will be ineligible to apply for shares.

Presently, 18 general and three life insurance companies are listed with the stock exchanges and are being traded at attractive prices. Another company Agrani Insurance Company Limited opened subscription for IPO on January 9 and closed on January 13. The IPO of Agrani were oversubscribed by more than seven times.