No reason to reject China consortium’s proposal: BSEC chief

There is no basis for turning down the Chinese consortium’s proposal to buy 25 percent stakes in Dhaka Stock Exchange and become a strategic partner, said M Khairul Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.

At the same time, the proposal from the National Stock Exchange of India will also be considered as they have successfully handled demutualisation of its bourse, he told The Daily Star yesterday. “It will be better if we can engage both the investors.”

Hossain’s comments come amid reports of the BSEC and DSE being at loggerheads over the winning bidder.

The country’s premier bourse’s hunt for a strategic partner comes as part of its conditions for demutualisation in 2013, which transformed it from an entity owned by mostly brokerage-owning members into a for-profit company owned by shareholders.

Earlier on Saturday, the DSE board unanimously chose a consortium of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) as the strategic partner of the premier bourse.

Upon sensing that their offer will not be selected, Vikram Limaye, managing director and chief executive of the NSE, rushed in to Dhaka on Sunday and got straight into lobbying with BSEC, which will have the final word on the winning proposal.

The NVVN gained the contract by way of beating two leading electricity buying and selling organizations of India. This is the 2nd time a state-owned Indian electricity entity has won a contract to furnish electrical energy in Bangladesh.

In 2013, Power Trading Corporation of India secured a similar cross-border supply contract in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, Indian Power Minister RK Singh has stated the government is planning to ship teams to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar to examine the demand for “cheaper” export of electricity where per unit of generating electrical energy is “very high”. He also exhorted NTPC to emerge as India’s electricity sector multinational by using setting up electricity flora in other countries and emerge as world’s biggest electricity producer.

Singh stated there was huge chance to export low priced power to neighbouring countries which will be really helpful for the complete region, according to a announcement issued by means of the electricity ministry on Tuesday.