Aramit Cement Limited, the sister company of the Aramit Group, suddenly announced that it will only pay an interim cash dividend of 5% to its ordinary shareholders in the current 2021-22 fiscal year.

However, due to negative retained earnings, the company did not pay any dividends to shareholders in the previous fiscal year.

Earlier, the company paid a 12% cash dividend in fiscal year 2016. Since then, it has not paid any dividends to shareholders.

According to market sources, Alamite Cement violated the listing regulations while declaring dividends.

According to the listing regulations, listed companies should notify the exchanges and regulators 3 working days before the board meeting-especially the meeting to review or adjust the quarterly financial statements or any rights (interim dividends) for shareholders.

However, the company shall not notify relevant units and shareholders through the stock exchange website.

DSE officials stated that Aramit's interim dividend declaration does not comply with this rule. But the company told DSE that the meeting had been previously confirmed.

When contacted, officials from Alamit Cement did not respond by telephone.

Rezaul Karim, executive director and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, told Business Standards, “If there is any violation of the rules when an interim dividend is declared, the committee will take necessary measures.”

At the same time, due to the sudden announcement of an interim cash dividend that does not include the company's sponsors and directors, and because there is no circuit breaker mechanism, Aramit's stock price rose 18.50% from Tk34.60 to Tk41 per share on Monday.

The company's financial report shows that in the four fiscal years from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2020, losses occurred. But it returned to profitability by earning 202 million taka in FY21.

After adjusting the profit, its retained earnings or accumulated profits and losses as of September 30, 2021 were minus 59.87 million taka.

In the July-September quarter of this fiscal year, the company's revenue fell 54% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, resulting in a loss of 66,400,000 taka.

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