Premier Bank has announced that it will not pay any dividend to shareholders for the first time after 13 years of listing on the stock market. In addition, the bank has incurred a loss of more than 100 crore taka at the end of the first half of this year (January-June). These decisions were taken after the bank's board of directors approved the financial report at its meeting on Wednesday. The bank informed investors about this information on Thursday through the country's main stock market, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

According to the information provided by the bank on the DSE, the meeting of the bank's reconstituted board of directors was held yesterday. There, the financial report of last year as well as the financial report of the first half of this year were reviewed. After reviewing the financial report of last year, the current board of Premier Bank decided not to pay any dividend to the shareholders. For this, a 'no dividend' was announced from the meeting. Although the bank made a profit of Tk 134 crore last year. In 2023, the bank made a profit of about Tk 416 crore. Accordingly, the profit of Premier Bank has decreased by Tk 282 crore or 68 percent in a span of one year.

According to DSE data, Premier Bank was listed on the stock market in 2007. It is currently a 'A' category company with good fundamentals. Since its listing, the bank has been paying investors either cash dividends, bonus or stock dividends every year. In some of these years, the bank has also paid both cash and bonus dividends. The bank last paid a 12.5 percent cash dividend to shareholders for the year 2023.

Since its establishment in 1999, Premier Bank has been under the control of Awami League leader HBM Iqbal and his family. After the political upheaval in the country in August last year, the bank's leadership has also changed. Most recently, on August 19, Bangladesh Bank completely removed the Iqbal family from the board of directors of Premier Bank. The board was dissolved and a new board was formed with one shareholder director and five independent directors. The board approved several financial reports of the bank in its meeting on Wednesday. After the political upheaval in the country in August last year, Premier Bank's annual and two quarterly financial reports for the current year were stuck. They were approved in the meeting on Wednesday.

According to the information provided by Premier Bank on the DSE, the bank has lost Tk 137 crore in the first six months of this year. As a result, the bank's earnings per share or EPS has decreased to negative Tk 1.11 paise at the end of June. That is, the bank has lost Tk 1.11 paise per share in the first six months of this year. There, the bank had a profit of Tk 195 crore in the same period last year.