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11 listed banks declare no dividend; 10 moved to Z category
Eleven listed banks have declared no dividend for the year ending on December 31, 2025 with 10 of them newly placed in the Z category.
The latest disclosures, made on Sunday through the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), also triggered restrictions on margin loan facilities for the banks concerned.
The banks that recommended no dividend are AB Bank PLC, UCB PLC, Rupali Bank PLC, Premier Bank PLC, IFIC Bank PLC, Mercantile Bank PLC, Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC, NRBC Bank PLC, National Bank PLC, NRB Bank PLC and One Bank PLC.
Ten of the banks except National Bank were placed in the Z category from their previous classifications, effective from Sunday, according to DSE notices.
National Bank was already in the Z category and therefore remained unchanged despite recommending no dividend.
Earlier last week, Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC, Standard Bank PLC and SBAC Bank PLC were also downgraded to the Z category after failing to declare dividends for two consecutive years.
Under the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (Margin) Rules, 2025, stock brokers and merchant bankers were instructed to refrain from extending loan facilities to purchase shares of the banks that declared no dividend.
Several banks cited regulatory constraints and provisioning shortfalls for their inability to recommend payouts.
Rupali Bank said Bangladesh Bank granted regulatory forbearance against a provisioning shortfall of Tk 14,014.48 crore.
Premier Bank said the central bank allowed it to finalise its financial statements without adjusting a shortfall of Tk 9,799.26 crore.
Mercantile Bank said it was allowed to complete its accounts with an unadjusted provision shortfall of Tk 2,161.31 crore, while NRB Bank said the central bank did not allow it to declare a dividend due to a lack of distributable profit.
AB Bank reported consolidated earnings per share (EPS) of Tk (43.42) with negative net asset value (NAV) per share of Tk (36.24), while National Bank posted EPS of Tk (7.55) and NAV per share of Tk (7.37).
There was no price limit on trading the shares of these banks on Sunday following their corporate declarations, reports UNB.