Big changes ahead in Islami Bank board

Staff Correspondent: Again, major changes have been made in the Board of Directors of Islami Bank. The country’s largest private sector bank informed the Dhaka Stock Exchange about this change in its share report for July this year.
According to the report, Saudi Arabia-based company Arabsus Travel and Tourist Agency sent a letter on July 5 and withdrew the directorship. Then the bank approved it through the board meeting on July 26. However, the company has not yet sold the shares.
Prior to this, Musaid Abdullah A Al-Raji served as the director of Islami Bank for a long time on behalf of the company. Arabsus Travel owns 9.99 percent shares of Islami Bank.
In the letter of Islami Bank sent to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, it is said that the Saudi Arabia-based company Arabsus Travel and Tourist Agency sent a letter on July 5 saying that they will not hold the position of director of Islami Bank.
Earlier, the government institution Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) withdrew from the management by giving up the entire share of Islami Bank. Before that, several foreign companies sold the shares of Islami Bank.
Meanwhile, in July this year, Islami Bank appointed Armada Spinning Mills nominee Abu Saeed Mohammad Kasem, Kingsway Endeavors nominee Shawkat Hossain and UniGlobe Business Resources nominee Jamal Mostafa Chowdhury as shareholder directors. These three institutions jointly have 11.07 percent shares in Islami Bank.
Earlier in June, these companies withdrew their directorships from the bank. Professor Nazmul Hasan, Professor Salim Uddin and Major General (retired) Abdul Matin were the nominated directors of these three companies in the bank board at that time.
Besides, in June, Ahsanul Alam, son of Saiful Alam Masood, chairman of S Alam Group, was appointed as a shareholder director of the bank as a nominee of JMC Builders.
Since its inception in 1983, Jamaat-e-Islami-related individuals and institutions have run the bank smoothly until 2011. In November 2011, the capital market regulatory body BSEC made new rules, to become a director in a listed company, the director must have at least 2 percent of the company’s shares. After making this provision, Jamaat-affiliated individuals and institutions in the bank declined. In 2017, Chittagong-based S Alam Group bought shares from the market and became the owner of the bank.