DHAKA – Bangladesh has agreed to sell a large stake in its stock exchangeto a Chinese consortium, an official said on Tuesday, rebuffing a rival bidfrom India that raised political sensitivities.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange on February 10 had approved the Chinese offer tobuy a quarter of the bourse’s 1.8 billion shares, but Bangladesh’sfinancial regulator asked it to “further scrutinise” the decision.
“The board has reconfirmed its decision about approving the Chineseconsortium’s bid as it is higher than its nearest competitor’s,” said stockexchange spokesman Shafiqur Rahman after the meeting on Monday evening.
The Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange had offered 15 taka ($0.18) pershare during the tender process this month.
China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges made a joint higher bid of 22taka per share, or $122 million, and offered additional technical supportworth nearly $37 million.
The intervention by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission inthe sale sparked allegations in local media that it was trying to favourIndia.
The Bangladesh office of Transparency International, the Berlin-basedcorruption watchdog, issued a statement “strongly condemning” what itcalled unethical and illegal meddling.
The regulator — which at the time defended its final authority to overridedecisions made by the stock exchange — was not immediately available forcomment.
The competing bids have exposed tensions in Bangladesh as it jugglesgrowing interest from China against longstanding ties with its hugeneighbour India.
New Delhi threw its weight behind the 2014 elections that returned PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina to power, despite boycotts by the opposition whofeared the vote would be rigged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has made big investments inBangladesh and Indian companies have won multi-billion contracts in keysectors in recent years.
But increasingly it must counter China, which has also courted India’sarch-rival Pakistan and strategic Indian Ocean nations including Sri Lankaand the Maldives.
Xi Jinping in October 2016 became the first Chinese president to visitBangladesh in more than three decades, signing deals worth more than $20billion.
But there have been setbacks, with Bangladesh last month blacklisting a topChinese construction firm for allegedly trying to bribe a senior governmentofficial. -APP/AFP