Chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Prof Dr Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam today said that they are motivating the state-owned enterprises (SoEs) to float shares and the government is very much positive in this regard.

“One gas and one power generation company have advanced much to float shares in the capital market,” he said.

The chairman of BSEC said this today at the “CMJF Talk” held at the office of Capital Market Journalists’ Forum (CMJF) in the capital.

“The securities regulator has been inspiring SoEs to float shares and the government is very much positive in this regard,” he added.

Shibli said many good companies are waiting to go public submitting good financials. “Some IPOs (initial public offering) are likely to be submitted on completion of financial statements for the year ended this June,” the chairman added.

He said the securities regulator imposed floor prices to ‘protect’ general investors although such measure is not desirable in context of market regulation and global practice.

”It’s not desirable but we did it to protect general investors who have major shares in market participation,” Shibli said in his response to a question.

He said the BSEC was not supposed to impose floor prices if 80 per cent of the investors were institutional like the America and Europe.

“I also represent the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and from this position it’s not right to impose floor prices,” said the BSEC chairman.

The securities regulator further imposed floor prices on Thursday to arrest the ongoing fall of the capital market.

The floor prices for all listed securities will be their respective averages of the closing prices of five sessions executed since Sunday to Thursday last and the market prices of the securities will not be allowed to go down below the respective floor prices.

Responding to a question regarding some investors having huge followers, the BSEC chairman said the regulator does not advise anyone to conduct buy-sell.

He said the decision of calculating bank’s exposure to stock market based cost prices instead of market prices is under the process.

“A move is under way to calculate the exposure limit based on cost prices without changing laws.”

Replying to another question regarding the BSEC’s road shows held abroad, the BSEC chairman said they hold road shows for the country’s branding.

Asked about the outcome of the restricting boards of many companies, the BSEC chairman said investors are showing interest to purchase two companies after restructuring their boards.

He also said none of the companies having restructured boards are going to bad condition.

“We will also sit with the governor of the central bank in August to improve corporate governances of weak non-banking financial institutions,” he added.

Asked about the reduction of manipulation through the regulatory enforcement, the BSEC chairman said the amount of punitive measures taken in last two years was much higher than previous years.

“Someone cannot improve the situation alone unless others come up with supports. I have work with all in context of reality, ” he added.

The CMJF president Ziaur Rahman and general secretary Abu Ali were present at the meet organised by the CMJF.