Sonali Life Insurance (SLI) Company has distributed an additional Tk 20 million (Tk 2 crore) dividend among its new shareholders. Under the insurance company law, companies have to pay dividends among shareholders calculated on the record date. The board of Sonali Life Insurance has calculated the number of shareholders and distributed dividends.
On the other hand, since many new investors have invested in the company soon after it came into the initial public offering (IPO) by buying shares, Sonali Life has distributed dividends worth Tk 1.90 crore again among its 1,53,000 shareholders, according to a statement.
The board of directors of the company had decided to pay the additional amount of dividend to keep the interest of the investors as per the instruction of the regulatory authority, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
Earlier, the company declared a 10 per cent cash dividend for all investor shareholders for the year that ended on 31 December 2020, according to a press release.
Accordingly, it distributed the dividend worth Tk 2.85 crore among its investor shareholders in June 2021 on the record date as per the company’s valuation.
The SLI board also recommended a 2.0 per cent interim cash dividend for all shareholders as on the record date set on August 04 based on the commendable performance of the company for fiscal year 2020-21.
Meanwhile, as the company’s IPO joining process was completed by June 2021, a good number of investors speculated on SLI shares.
The BSEC then asked the SLI to pay a dividend among the newly added investors as per the ratio, meaning equal to the dividend of investor shareholders, a 10 per cent cash.
Accordingly, SLI distributed the dividend among new shareholders in April 2022.
Sonali Life is the first company whose shares were allotted under the newly introduced pro-rata basis. It raised Tk 190 million from the capital market by issuing 19 million ordinary shares under the fixed price method.
The company’s paid-up capital is Tk 475 million, authorised capital is Tk 1.0 billion and the total number of securities is 47.50 million. Sponsor directors own 54.58 per cent stake in the company while institutional investors own 4.37 per cent and the public 41.05 per cent.