Asset management company Strategic Equity Management Limited (SEML) applied to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for registration in 2007. Six individuals from the private sector initiated the company. However, BSEC did not respond to the approval of the company's registration application for a long time due to the lack of necessary documents.
Later, SoftHorizon company, owned by former Padma Bank chairman Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat and his family bought SEML with a few crore taka. The maximum share of SoftHorizon was owned by Nafeez Sarafat's wife Anjuman Ara Shahid Chowdhury and his sister Aniza Chowdhury.
According to the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC), Strategic Equity was registered as a private company on August 7, 2007. As per the latest update of 2023, the capital of the company is Tk 20 crore. It has about 950,000 shares held by Softhorizon. A person named Mohammad Rafiqul Islam has 5,000 shares of SEML. Nafeez Sarafat's longtime colleague Ehsanul Kabir owns 100 shares of the company. Currently, Ehsanul is holding the positions of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Strategic Equity Management.
Although the company got RJSC registration in 2007, it applied again for registration to BSEC as an asset management company in 2013 under the ownership of Nafeez Sarafat. A top official of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence influenced the BSEC at that time to register the company quickly. In 2014, Strategic Equity Management Limited was registered as an asset management company due to the lobbying of that official. Later, Nafeez Sarafat used SEML to commit various financial irregularities. One of these irregularities was the transfer of hundreds of crores of taka from Padma Bank controlled by Nafeez Sarafat to this asset management company in the name of investment.
Currently, SEML has four mutual funds. The primary size of these four funds is Tk 323 crore. Three of these funds are listed in the stock market. These are the SEML FBSL Growth Fund, SEML IBBL Sharia Fund and SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund. All these three funds are closed-ended. Apart from this, SEML has a Tk 100 crore open-ended mutual fund named SEML PBSL Fixed Income Fund, which is not listed in the stock market. There are various allegations of irregularities against Nafeez in the investment of these funds.
On Tuesday last, the capital market regulator BSEC formed a three-member investigation committee to probe various allegations brought against Strategic Equity Management. BSEC's additional director Mohammad Emdadul Haque will lead the committee. Two other members are -- deputy director Rafiqun Nabi and assistant director Mohammad Abu Hena Mostafa.
Out of the four funds managed by Strategic Equity, two are sponsored by Padma Bank affiliates. It means Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat transferred money from one company related to his interest in the name of investing in another company.
While Padma Bank is not able to return money to the depositors after years due to irregularities, Nafeez Sarafat, as the chairman of the bank, diverted hundreds of crores of taka to his self-interested institutions in the name of investment.
The BSEC asked the investigation committee to look into the use of SEML funds in the name of alternative investments and various related irregularities. According to a media release, the committee has been asked to submit the report to the BSEC within the next 60 working days.
The stock market regulator said the probe body will examine the investment information of the alternative investment fund of Strategic Equity Management as well as whether the laws and regulations have been properly followed in the investment.
Besides, checking the information against the investment, whether there is any conflict of interest in the investment, checking the updated information of the fund's bank account, how much interest the fund has received against the deposit in the bank, how much profit has been received against the investment in various institutions, this information is also investigated. Source daily Prothom Alo.
bd-pratidin/GR