The board of directors of National Credit and Commerce Bank has postponed the recent dividend recommendation for the year ended on December 31, 2019, said an official disclosure on Sunday.
The board of the bank further informed that they unanimously decided to postpone the recommendation of dividend, record date and date of AGM to comply with the DOS Circular of Bangladesh Bank No. 03, dated May 11, 2020, according to the disclosure.
They also informed that aforementioned decisions will be taken in due course and to be disclosed in time.
Earlier on April 27, the board of directors of the bank in a virtual meeting on had recommended 17 per cent cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2019.
Meanwhile, the central bank on May 11 suspended the payment of cash dividends by the banks until September 30 this year. Even the banks, which have already declared their dividends for 2019, will have to revise it if it clashes with the new step.
The central bank took the decision to boost the banks capacity to absorb the strain on their capital base from the ongoing economic dire straits due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The banks, according to the Bangladesh bank (BB) directive, are allowed to declare 30 per cent dividends, including a maximum of 15 per cent cash dividend, for 2019 if the banks are able to maintain 12.5 per cent capital-to-risk weighted-asset ratio, or CRAR.
The NCC Bank has also reported consolidated EPS of Tk 2.30, consolidated NAV per share of Tk 21.02 and consolidated NOCFPS of Tk 4.60 for the year ended on December 31, 2019 as against Tk. 1.97, Tk. 19.19 and Tk. 5.44 respectively for the same period of the previous year.
Each share of the bank, which was listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2000, closed at Tk 12 on March 25, the last trading session before the government holiday started.
In the last one year, its share traded between Tk 11 and Tk 16.30 each.
The bank disbursed 5.0 per cent cash and 5.0 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2018.
The bank’s paid-up capital is Tk 9.27 billion and authorised capital is Tk 20 billion, while the total number of securities is 927.37 million.
The sponsor-directors own 36.74 per cent stake in the bank, while the institutional investors own 18.88 per cent, foreign investors 1.11 per cent and the general public 43.27 per cent as on February 29, 2019, the DSE data shows.