Rahima Food Corporation, a re-listed company, is going to start commercial operation for production and marketing of coconut oil from tomorrow (Thursday) after completion of trial production, the company said in a filing with the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The business operation of the company resumed after nine years as the company had been out of business since June 2013.
In addition to production of coconut oil, the company will also do bottling and marketing of soybean and mustard oil, according to the filing.
"The company will set up a manufacturing plant for processing and packing of cashew nuts and marketing thereof at home and abroad," said the filing.
City Group, a leading business conglomerate and consumer goods manufacturer in Bangladesh took over the company in 2016 by purchasing all of the shares held by the company's sponsors.
The company used to produce edible oil and vegetable ghee in its own refinery.
According to an official of the corporation, in December 2017, the board of the company was reformed by the City Group. The new management decided to change the nature of its business -- from refined edible oil. Subsequently, it set up a new coconut oil plant.
Rahima Food Corporation was incorporated on 6 June, 1990 as a private limited company, and in 1997, it entered the share market through Initial Public Offering (IPO).
But on 19 July 2018, the DSE de-listed its share trading because the company was not in operation for a long time.
Its share trading resumed on DSE on 29 December, 2020 after a break of more than two years, while the trading started on Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on 28 December in the same year, following the securities regulator's instruction.
Following the commercial operation news, the company's share price rose by 2.27 per cent to close at Tk 365.60 each on Tuesday. Its shares traded between Tk 175.40 and Tk 387 in the last year.
The company has incurred a loss of Tk 0.03 per share in six months for July-December 2021 as against profit of Tk 0.08 for July-December 2020.
Earnings per share dropped significantly due to less income received from banks as interest on deposits at lower interest rates during the period compared to the same period a year earlier, said the company.
The Rahima Food paid only 1.0 per cent cash dividend to its shareholders other than the directors for the year ended on June 30, 2021.
Its paid-up capital is Tk 200 million and authorised capital is Tk 500 million, while the total number of securities is 20 million.
The sponsor-directors own 37.48 per cent stake in the company, while the institutional investors own 19.10 per cent, foreign investors 4.99 per cent and the general public 38.53 per cent as on January 31, 2022, the DSE data showed.
