Salman F Rahman questions the approval of listing of Walton

Salman F Rahman questioned the approval of the listing of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited on the stock market by offloading “only” 1 percent of its shares at a virtual news conference.

The prime minister’s adviser for private industry and investment and a perliament member was perticipating a virtual news conference organised by Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission when he asked this question.

The prime minister’s adviser pointed out “The sponsors hold the remaining 99 percent shares. It has made Walton the company with the second-largest market capital all of a sudden”.

“I don’t know whether it has been done intentionally, but it is sending a wrong message,” he added.

The technology company Walton has raised Tk 1 billion from the market by releasing 2,928,343 shares in the book-building system through the IPO after receiving the BSEC nod in early 2020.Walton issued 1,379,367 of these shares to eligible investors at their own bidding prices. The cut-off price per share was fixed at Tk 315 through bidding in March. General investors got 1,548,976 shares at Tk 252 per issue or in 20 percent discount from the cut-off price.