The company offered 900,000 shares of Tk 100 each (at par) totalling Tk 9 crore but investors including the general public and the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) have applied for shares worth about Tk 70 crore.

"We have received Tk 69.80 crore through 130,230 applications from the general public and NRBs. Of them, general investors have applied for shares worth around Tk65.55 crore while the NRBs went for Tk4.25 crore," SM Jasim Uddin Ahammed, company secretary of Global Insurance Ltd, told The Daily Star.

The general investors have deposited Tk65.55 crore, which is more than eight times, against shares worth Tk8.10 crore through 1.30lakh applications. The amount deposited by the NRBs through 230 applications against shares valued Tk 90 lakh is less than five times.

As per Public Issue Rules of 1998, the company offered Tk 8.10 crore for the general public and kept the rest 10 percent of the total shares amounting to Tk 90 lakh reserved for the NRBs.

"The lottery for the allotment of shares is scheduled to be held on March 2 but we have requested the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for extending the time for another 10 days," the company secretary said adding, "If it is accepted, the lottery may take place in the second week of March."

Of the 1.30 lakh applications in general category, only 16,200 will be successful, Ahammed mentioned.

It is mandatory for the company not to allow any application for share from the general public who do not have beneficiary owners' (BO) accounts.

However, the NRBs are allowed to apply for shares without BO accounts provided that he or she will inform the company about his or her depository account number for obtaining shares, if allotted in his or her favour.

Global Insurance opened subscription for IPO on January 29 and was scheduled to close on February 2. But the company extended the subscription period up to February 6 as the investors could not apply for the IPO due to 60-hour hartal from January 29 to 31 that badly hit business, banking and other economic activities.

The company was forced to extend the time for the second time until February 9 when a daylong hartal was called on February 3 followed by another two-day hartal on February 5 and 6 and February 4 was a Friday.

At present, 18 general and three life insurance companies are listed with the stock exchanges and are being traded ranging between Tk 161 and Tk 3,139 as on yesterday.

"Shares of insurance companies are being traded at attractive prices and it is the main reason for getting such tremendous response from the public. If an applicant succeeds in getting shares, he or she will make a handsome amount of money," said Alamgir Faruk, a stock market operator.