Rupali Bank is auctioning mortgaged land belonging to Beximco Limited to recover defaulted loans. The bank’s outstanding loan from Beximco Textiles stands at 1.909 billion taka. To recover this debt, 26 acres of mortgaged land and property in Gazipur and Narayanganj have been put up for auction. The auction notice was announced last Friday. According to the notice issued by Rupali Bank’s head office, the bank’s latest outstanding claim against Beximco Textiles is 1.9092 billion taka, excluding unpaid interest. To recover the bank’s dues, other costs, and court-ordered interest, the immovable and movable properties described in the schedule are being put up for sale in their current condition. The borrower is listed under the name Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited (Beximco Limited), formerly known as Bextex Limited. Padma Textile Mills and Beximco Knitting have since merged with Beximco Limited.
Asked about the matter, Beximco Limited Company Secretary Asad Ullah said in a media interview that he was unaware of Rupali Bank’s auction. He said that if the company remains shut down, there is no way to repay the loan. He said the company was not a loan defaulter as of October 2024, after which the Yunus government shut down the company. He said: “The company took loans from the bank to run its business. If we can’t run the business, how will the money come in? With the company shut down, thousands of workers are jobless. Now there’s nothing left in the factories but idle machinery. In this situation, how are we supposed to repay the bank?”
The auction notice lists multiple schedules of land in various areas of Gazipur, including Joydebpur, Kaliakair, and Kapasia. Land quantities are listed in acres in some schedules and in decimals in others. One Gazipur schedule lists 2.19 acres, another 48 decimals, and a third 3.66 acres. Several other schedules list land in fractions of an acre or in decimals. The notice also separately describes 8.55 acres of land in the Sarabo mouza, Gazipur thana and district, with the total land area across various plots under the CS record listed as 8.55 acres.
Mortgaged Beximco land in the Tarabo and Jatramura mouzas of Narayanganj is also included in the auction list. The Tarabo mouza land totals 8.39 acres across two portions — 4.52 acres in one and 3.87 acres in the other. Another schedule in the Jatramura mouza lists 9.2 acres. In total, these three schedules alone account for 17.41 acres of land in Narayanganj. Including the 8.55 acres in Gazipur, the schedules list a total of 25.96 acres of land.
Interested individuals or organizations must submit bids at the designated office by 2 p.m. on September 14. Bids will be opened at 2:05 p.m. that day in the presence of bidders. Participants must submit a security deposit at a set rate based on their proposed bid: 20 percent for bids up to 1 million taka, 15 percent for bids between 1 million and 5 million taka, and 10 percent for bids above 5 million taka. However, authorities may reject a bid if the proposed price is deemed abnormally low or inadequate.
According to Beximco’s financial statements, as of June 30, 2024, the company’s long-term debt to Rupali Bank stood at 4.8266 billion taka. However, the 1.9092 billion taka claim cited in the current auction notice is the relevant amount for this auction process. Overall, this auction by Rupali Bank represents a major step in recovering Beximco’s debt. To recover roughly 1.91 billion taka in dues, the bank has moved to sell mortgaged property in Gazipur and Narayanganj.
Economist Professor Abu Ahmed said the bank’s board made this decision after careful consideration. However, given the risk that the auction may not fetch the property’s fair value, he said the best outcome would be a resolution reached through mutual understanding between the customer and the bank.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report