No new investment is taking place in the stock market. In 2025, not a single initial public offering (IPO) has been listed on the country’s stock exchanges. Moreover, no company has even submitted an IPO application to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
In this situation, market stakeholders say that issue managers and entrepreneurs have completely lost confidence in the BSEC. A major gap has emerged between market demand and supply. Under the current circumstances, investors have no confidence in making any kind of investment in the stock market.
They also believe that the present commission has failed to take effective measures to restore confidence.
According to BSEC sources, since August 2024 the regulatory body has undertaken several initiatives to restructure the commission and reform the capital market. Despite repeated claims of reforms, no visible improvement has been seen in the stock market. There have even been instances of general investors taking to the streets in protest, demanding the restoration of market stability. However, no new company’s IPO has been approved.
After the formation of the current commission, several meetings were held with large local companies and some multinational corporations regarding IPOs and investment. However, nothing materialized beyond those meetings. There were also announcements about listing a few profitable state-owned enterprises through IPOs, but no progress has been observed on that front either.
Before August 2024, four companies raised funds from the stock market through IPOs. In 2023 as well, four companies came to the market with IPOs. In 2020 and 2021, a record amount of funds was raised through IPOs over two consecutive years. However, the number of IPOs declined significantly in 2022.
Speaking to Bangladesh Pratidin, Abu Ahmed, Chairman of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) and a capital market analyst, said that in the past there was not enough effort from higher authorities to bring good companies to the market. “There is no incentive here—so why would good companies come?” he said. “Work is now underway on this issue. A task force has been formed to look into it. Even if not every month, there should be four to five good IPOs each year. Otherwise, no one will come to the stock market.”
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
