The trading of the Grameenphone shares at the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges is likely to begin in November, subject to approval from the regulators and stock exchanges. 
   A total 3,12,501 shares were allocated through lottery with 2,77,757 for resident Bangladeshis, 34,720 allocated to non-resident Bangladeshis and 24 to mutual funds, a news release said.
   The Grameenphone IPO lottery was held on Wednesday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
   The IPO lottery was conducted under the management of the Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation, the consultation wing of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
   M Rakibur Rahman, president of Dhaka Stock Exchange, Fakhor Uddin Ali Ahmed, senior vice-president of Chittagong Stock Exchange, and Oddvar Hesjedal, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, among others, were present on the occasion.
   Speaking on the occasion, the Grameenphone CEO thanked the regulators, issue managers and post issue managers for their guidance and helping in taking the process forward so smoothly.
   The Grameenphone IPO has been by far the largest IPO ever in the Bangladesh capital market and has generated great interest locally and abroad.

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said the government is undertaking measures to boost domestic investment first so the foreign investors feel encouraged to invest in the country.
   ‘Foreign investment will not rise if domestic investment does not increase,’ he said, adding that the stalemate over investment has not been removed till now.
   The finance minister was talking to reporters after a meeting with a 17-member German Business Mission, led by German Asia Pacific Business Association chairman Peter Clansen, at his ERD office.
   German ambassador to Bangladesh Holger Michael and Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Saiful Islam were present at the meeting.
   Muhith said the investment slowed down due to the global economic recession while the domestic investors are closely following the policy developments after the new government taking office. ‘The investors are in a ‘wait and see’ strategy.’
   He said the government has already undertaken measures to remove two longstanding bottlenecks of investment - high interest on bank loans and bureaucratic tangles - while measures are being taken to solve the energy and power crisis.
   ‘I hope, the investment stalemate would go very soon,’ he said, adding that the September 2009 imports of capital machinery show a better prospect for investment.
   The finance minister said that the German businessmen showed interest to invest in shipbuilding, gas and power sectors, transportation, water resources, and ICT sectors.
   ‘Shipbuilding can play a positive role in the economic development of the country through attracting FDI,’ he said.

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry calls upon NBR to extend the time for submission of income tax return from October 31 to November 30 because the long holiday during Eid and Durga Puja.
   In a statement, the chamber-body also said that the number of professionals in preparing income tax return in the country is relatively limited, resulting in delay in preparing the return for a large number of tax payers.
   Under the circumstance, DCCI urges upon NBR to extend the time.

A Hong Kong company will invest US$ 32 million in the Adamjee Export Processing Zone to expand its garments manufacturing industry.
   The 100 per cent foreign-owned company, M/s Epic Garments Manufacturing Company Limited, will set up its unit and produce specialized garment items.
   The company will also create employment opportunity for 10,000 Bangladeshi workers, said a press release.
   An agreement, to this effect, was signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the Epic Garments Manufacturing company Ltd in BEPZA complex on Wednesday.
   M Moyjuddin Ahmed, member (investment promotion), of BEPZA and Virender Goyal, joint managing director of Epic Garments Manufacturing company Ltd, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

A two-day long capital fair, organised by Chittagong Stock Exchange, concluded on Wednesday at the auditorium of Institution of Engineers Bangladesh.
   Some 30 organisations, including brokerage houses, banks and other financial institutions took part in the fair organised for the second time in the port city.
   Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, vice president of CSE, said that the fair was intended to create awareness among the investors about the capital market.
   Some 7,000 to 8,000 people visited the fair, he said adding that the fair would play a significant role in attracting new investors to the capital market alongside enhancing expertise of the old investors.

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp said on Tuesday that their optical disc drive operations with South Korean partners were being investigated internationally for possible anti-trust violations.
   Hitachi said its joint venture with LG Electronics, Hitachi-LG Data Storage, had received a subpoena from the US Department of Justice, and that the unit was also under investigation by European Union and Singapore regulators.
   Toshiba said its joint venture with Samsung Ele-ctronics, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp, had also received a subpoena in the United States and that it was answering queries from authorities in other regions.

Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Ltd has recently awarded AA2 rating in the long term to 86 MW gas-based power plant project of Shahjibazar Power Company Limited at Fatehpur at Shahjibazar in Hobigonj.
   CRAB managing director Hamidul Huq handed over the rating report to Firoz Alam, managing director of SPCL, at a function in the city, said a news release.
   HS Sohrawardhi, vice-president and company secretary, Md Tajul Islam, manager ratings, of CRAB and Rezakul Haider, chairman, AKM Baidul Alam, director, Hafizur Rahman, executive director of SPCL, among other were present on the occasion.
   Project rated ‘AA’ has strong capacity to meet its financial commitments.

Janata Bank Limited recently signed an agreement with Data Soft Systems BD Limited to supply install, customise and commissioning of centralised real time online banking system.
   Chairman of the bank Abul Barakat presided over the agreement signing ceremony held in Dhaka, said a news release.
   Mahboob Zaman, managing director of Data Soft Systems, and deputy general manager of the bank signed the agreement. Senior officials of the organisations were also present on the occasion.

For the third consecutive year in Euromoney’s annual cash management poll’s, Citigroup was voted the number one Cash Management Bank globally.
   In addition to capturing the top spot in the global poll, Citi also took top honors with 5 regional awards and 24 country awards as voted by clients, said press release.
   Citi is committed to providing clients with the most innovative tools and solutions, robust technology, and access to its unparalleled global network. As evidence Citi is very proud of its’ high rankings in this year’s Service Satisfaction Rankings. Most notably Citi continues to top the charts in Overall Service, Global Liquidity Capabilities, innovative payment/collection methods and comprehensive electronic banking capabilities.

Asian markets tumbled for a second successive day Wednesday as downbeat US data weighed on hopes for economic recovery, while dealers also stayed away ahead of fresh corporate results.
   Tokyo lost 1.35 per cent, Hong Kong 1.84 per cent and Sydney 1.44 per cent, while Seoul slid 2.41 per cent.
   The losses came after similar falls on Tuesday.
   TOKYO: Down 1.35 per cent. The Nikkei-225 fell 137.41 points to 10,075.05.
   HONG KONG: Down 1.84 per cent. The Hang Seng Index fell 408.01 points to 21,761.58.
   SHANGHAI: Up 0.33 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, rose 9.87 points to 3,031.33.
   SEOUL: Down 2.41 per cent. The KOSPI lost 39.82 points to 1,609.71.
   TAIPEI: Down 1.61 per cent Wednesday. The index fell 123.39 points to 7,533.95.
   SINGAPORE: Down 1.69 per cent. The Straits Timex Index fell 45.52 points to 2,648.98.
   BANGKOK: Down 1.48 per cent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand fell 10.59 points to 703.95.
   KUALA LUMPUR: Down 0.89 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index shed 11.25 points to 1,249.05.
   MUMBAI: Down 0.43 per cent. The 30-share Sensex fell 69.91 points to 16,283.49.

Ministers from the United States and China opened key trade talks Wednesday, with Washington looking to make progress on several disputes ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.
   US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack launched two days of talks with a team led by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan in eastern Hangzhou, US officials said.
   The talks come less than three weeks before Obama’s first presidential visit to China, and amid rising trade tensions between the two over US tariffs on Chinese tyre imports and a Beijing probe into US car products and chicken meat.
   ‘I know the Chinese have some issues—and we also have some issues,’ Locke told reporters at a pre-meeting briefing.
   ‘We’re hoping we will be able to make some considerable progress over the next day and a half in terms of some of these issues.’
   Locke also said climate change and clean energy would be high on the agenda for the annual meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), which last convened in Yorba Linda, California, in September 2008.
   ‘As the world’s two biggest emitters of carbon emissions, we also have a responsibility to act,’ Locke said.
   Washington and Beijing will be key players at the global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, which will aim to hammer out a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
   Locke said clean energy projects were ‘essential to keep our economies growing while preventing the catastrophic effects of climate change,’ but noted trade barriers had kept US firms out of new business opportunities in China.
   Locke said the value of the yuan would not be discussed during the talks, due to wrap up on Thursday. The US Treasury said earlier that the Chinese currency was ‘undervalued’, chiding Beijing for a ‘lack of flexibility’.
   Obama ignited the first major trade dispute of his presidency last month when he imposed punitive duties on Chinese-made tyres.
   Beijing retaliated by lodging a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and launching an investigation into possible unfair trade practices involving imports of US car products and chicken meat.
   Beijing has charged that Washington’s move violated WTO rules, but Obama has denied that it amounts to protectionism.
   And last week, the United States launched a probe on whether to slap almost 100 per cent tariffs on steel pipes imported from China.
   Locke said there was a fine line between stimulating domestic industries and protectionism—especially in the current difficult global economic climate.
   ‘If countries engage in protectionism, it invites retaliation. Once we have retaliation, countries end up in a trade war. And in a trade war, no one wins,’ Locke said.
   The US trade deficit with China is the widest Washington has with any country, totalling 143.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2009, according to US data—down 15.1 per cent from the same period last year.
   Obama is due to visit China on November 15-18. He will go to Shanghai and Beijing, where he will hold a third set of talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s top steel maker, said Wednesday it had made money in the third quarter after a nine-month losing streak, an unexpected turnaround reflecting healthier demand and thousands of job cuts.
   The company posted a three months to September net profit of 903 million dollars (631 million euros), compared with forecasts for a loss of 53 million dollars from analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
   ArcelorMittal suffered a second quarter net loss of 792 million dollars. It last posted a net profit, of 3.82 billion dollars in third quarter 2008, before the financial crisis brought the global economy to its knees.
   We saw the first signs of recovery in the third quarter ... We should see a further improvement going into 2010 although the operating environment remains difficult, company head Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement.
   But the results left investors unimpressed, notably a forecast for a fourth quarter operating profit of between 2.0 and 2.4 billion dollars that was deemed to be clearly disappointing by analysts at Societe Generale.
   ArcelorMittal shares at mid-day were down 3.67 per cent at 23.60 euros on a Paris market that was 1.76 per cent weaker.
   The company said it expected to operate at 70 per cent of capacity in the fourth quarter, having fallen to around 50 per cent during the worst of the crisis.
   It said its rebound reflected the faster-than-expected implementation of urgent measures at the start of the global downturn.
   Fixed costs have been slashed by 2.2 billion dollars on an annual basis, savings that flowed in part from the elimination of 39,000 jobs in the past year—through voluntary departures—out of a workforce of 287,000.
   Net debt, which at one point appeared to call into question the group’s financial soundness, has been cut by 11 billion dollars in the last 12 months to 21.6 billion dollars.
   Financial director Aditya Mittal said debt reduction was no longer a company priority. The group plans to boost investment to 4.0-5.0 billion dollars in 2010 from an expected 3.0 billion dollars this year, notably in emerging market countries and extraction projects.
   But Lakshmi Mittal insisted that despite improvements in demand and sales price levels, the company had not yet emerged fully from the crisis.
   Uncertainty continues to surround a rebound in China, far and away the world’s leading consumer and producer of steel.
   While Chinese demand should limit the decline in world steel consumption this year to 8.6 per cent, according to the World Steel Association, doubts persist about the pace, scope and durability of the Chinese recovery.
   The company added that that if inventory draw-downs in the United States and Europe were completed, a complete recovery in those markets would likely take several years.

Top Italian luxury goods firm Versace said Wednesday it will cut a quarter of its workforce and expects to report a loss for 2009 as demand for its products has shrunk in the economic crisis.
   It announced a cost-cutting plan to axe around 350 of its 1,300 workforce and review branches and investments as part of a ‘comprehensive corporate reorganisation,’ but gave no further details.
   It said it aimed to return to profit by 2011, after the recent downturn sapped demand for its upmarket clothes, handbags and sunglasses.
   ‘Trading conditions in the wake of the global financial crisis have been severe and the company expects to make a loss in 2009,’ Versace’s chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris said in the statement, without giving a figure.
   He insisted that the Versace brand had strong growth prospects, however, saying that artistic director Donatella Versace’s latest spring and summer collection had made a buzz last month at Milan Fashion Week.
   The group announced earlier this month that it had closed three stores in Japan, a key market for luxury goods, which recently re-emerged from a recession.
   Its former chief executive Giancarlo di Risio left in July in what the group called a ‘mutual’ decision. Press reports had cited a disagreement with Donatella Versace.
   The fashion house denied rumours that she had opposed cost-cutting measures imposed by the manager to combat the current financial downturn.
   Her brother Gianni Versace, known for designing glamorous and sexy outfits, was murdered in Miami in 1997, aged 51.
   Di Risio was appointed in 2004 to restructure the business, which had been in crisis since the murder, and managed to restore the company to profit over the next few years until the global crisis hit.

R-pac Bangladesh Packaging Co Ltd recently opened its Adamjee EPZ Plant at a ceremony at the plant’s premises.
   Michael Teitelbaum, president and chief executive officer of r-pac International Corp
   USA, Matt M Matsuo, president and chief operating officer of r-pac International Group, Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, ambassador of Turkish embassy Dhaka, M Didier Diakite, information systems officer of US embassy Dhaka, and Moyezuddin, member investment and promotion of BEPZA, were present on the occasion, said a news release.
   Michael Teitelbaum gave an outline of the plant and also the background of the r-pac International. He hoped that the facility of the company would attract other businesses to the zone.
   Sakir Ozkan Torunlar gave an overview of the relationship between Turkey, USA and Bangladesh. Didier Diakite thanked Bangladesh government as well as that of Turkey.
   Moyezuddin also spoke on the occasion. Senior officials of the company were also present in the programme.

HSBC Bangladesh Global Markets in collaboration with Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealer’s Association recently organised a workshop on Dhaka inter-bank offer rate for the banking institutions at a city hotel.
   Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui attended the workshop as chief guest, said a news release.
   The inter-bank offer rate, which is planned to be rolled out formally by January 1 next year, is expected to become the country’s benchmark for short term interest rate and have global visibility.
   Sanjay Prakash, chief executive officer of HSBC Bangladesh, said that HSBC was always ready to provide technical support necessary to help improve the financial sector of any country in which it operates.
   He also said that Bangladesh now deserves a more noticeable footprint in the global economy, and hoped that this initiative would open new avenues for further foreign investments in Bangladesh.
   Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed, chairman of BAFEDA and managing director and chief executive officer of Agrani Bank, also spoke on the occasion.
   Tarique I Khan, head of Global Markets of HSBC Bangladesh and chairman of BAFEDA technical committee gave a presentation on the inter-bank offer rate.

Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company Limited has recently earned ICMAB ‘Best Corporate Performance Award’.
   Chairman of the company’s board of directors Nazrul Islam received the award from the speaker of Jatiyo Sangsad, Abdul Hamid, at a ceremony held in Dhaka, said a news release.
   Commerce minister Faruk Khan was present as special guest while the president of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh presided over the function.

Global banking giant HSBC said Wednesday it was in advanced talks with China’s Bank of Communications to transfer their credit card business in China to a new joint venture company.
    ‘The joint venture will tap a market which is expected to see exponential growth in the coming years, particularly as, of the 1,800 million cards issued by 235 issuers (in China) in 2008, over 90 per cent comprised ATM or debit cards with no revolving credit line,’ HSBC said in a statement.
   It said the new arrangement would be an extension of HSBC’s 2004 cooperation cooperation agreement with BoCom’s Pacific Credit Card unit, which has already issued 11 million cards.
   That unit is to be transferred to the new venture, Bank of Communications and HSBC Pacific Credit Card Company Limited, which would have initial capital of 2.5 billion renminbi (368 million dollars, 249 million euros).