The board of directors of Acme Laboratories has declared the commencement of commercial production of its state of the art Penicillin facility at Dhamrai after successful completion of trial production.
The company noted that the aforesaid Penicillin facility is one of the three projects against which fund raised through Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The Acme Laboratories, the country’s oldest pharmaceutical company, raised Tk 4.09 billion from the public by using the book building method in early 2016.
The drugmaker floated 50 million ordinary shares of Tk 10 each with a premium of Tk 67 through an initial public offering for the general and affected investors, and non-resident Bangladeshis.
Acme was the second firm that used the book-building method after the securities regulator modified the pricing rules following the market crash in 2011.
Book-building is a process through which an issuer attempts to determine the price to offer for its security by gauging the demand from institutional investors.
On the Dhaka Stock Exchange, each Acme share traded between Tk 71.60 and Tk 73, before closing at Tk 72.80 on Wednesday.
In the last one year, its share traded between Tk 69 and 104.
The company disbursed 35 per cent cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2018.
The company’s earnings per share (EPS) in nine months for July 2018-March 2019, stood at Tk 5.43 as against Tk 5.66 for July 2017-March 2018.
The net operating cash flow per share (NOCFPS) was Tk 5.15 for July 2018-March 2019 as against Tk 6.80 for July 2017-March 2018.
The net asset value (NAV) per share was Tk 85.32 as on March 31, 2019 and Tk 83.39 as on June 30, 2018.
Sponsors hold 31.98 per cent stakes in company while the institutions 31.11 per cent, foreign investors 0.74 per cent and general public the remaining 36.17 per cent as of April 30, the DSE data shows.
The company’s paid-up capital is Tk 2.11 billion and authorised capital is Tk 5.0 billion while the total number of securities is 211.60 million.
