The Privatisation Commission yesterday declared the Saudi prince the highest bidder. Of the two technically fit bidders, the other one, Domestic Investors Consortium, offered $ 100million.

Earlier in the day, an evaluation committee comprising representatives from Bangladesh Bank, finance ministry, law ministry and consultants from the Privatisation Commission selected the two bidders out of four. Maa International Investment Ltd of Malaysia and JJ Finance Ltd of the UK were disqualified for technical reasons.

"The price offer we've received for the Rupali Bank has exceeded our expectations. The World Bank and other multilateral donor agencies had suggested that we should sell the bank at a price ranging between $ 100 to $150 million," Privatisation Commission Chairman Enam Ahmed Chaudhury said adding that he expected the price would be a maximum $ 250 million.

"Now, we will place the offer at the commission's meeting tomorrow [today] for approval," he said.

On getting the nod from the commission, the offer will be sent to the government for final approval. "We hope we can wrap up the process within the next month," he said.

Replying to a query, the commission chairman said the technical committee marked the bidders on grounds of their efficiency, management and operations system, and financial viability.

"Saudi prince and Domestic Investors obtained more than 90 marks while the other two-- Maa International and JJ Finance-- failed to get the pass mark of 75," he noted.

Asked why the commission opened the financial bid before schedule of August 30, he said the commission did this to avert legal complexities stemming from a High Court (HC) stay order on the process of selling the Rupali Bank.

The Supreme Court suspension for a week the execution of the High Court's order expires today.

The HC on August 21 stayed the procedures regarding the sale of Rupali Bank for three months.

The same day four bidders out of the short-listed seven companies from home and abroad submitted their technical and financial offers to the Privatisation Commission.

The government that owns 94 per cent of Rupali Bank's shares decided to sell 67 per cent of its shares in order to appease the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who conditioned loans from them with reforms in the banking sector. In March last year, the government assigned the Privatisation Commission to sell the bank.

Total assets of the Rupali Bank as showed in December 2005 stood at $1.07 billion and it has over 493 branches across the country.

RUPALI BANK'S SHARE PRICE UP
Share price of Rupali Bank shot up by Tk 347.25 or 29.14 per cent to close at Tk 1,647.25 yesterday. The price rose to as high as Tk 1,700 on speculations that the Saudi prince was going to be the highest bidder. The financial offers were opened after 2:00pm, the time the market closes.

On the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), share price of Rupali Bank went up by Tk 348.75 or 26.89 per cent to close at Tk 1645.25.

The bank ended up as the day's second best gainer on both DSE and CSE. A total of 22,790 shares of Rupali Bank worth Tk 3.53 crore were traded on DSE yesterday while 31,900 shares worth Tk 4.90 crore changed hands on CSE.