S Alam Group to take legal action against auction of its properties  

The S Alam Group has declared to take legal action against the Janata Bank's initiative to auction properties belonging to two of its subsidiaries – S Alam refined sugar industries and S Alam cold rolled steels. 

The bank is set to auction the mortgaged properties to recover defaulted loans of Tk 37.8 billion in total – Tk 20 billion from S Alam cold rolled steels and Tk 17.77 billion from S Alam refined sugar industries, according to sources.

Of the two entities, S Alam cold rolled steels, a publicly traded company, informed the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Wednesday about its plan to take the issue to the court, in an effort to halt the auction. This response followed a formal query from the DSE on 5 January, regarding the auction. 

The company noted that it has been going through multifaceted challenges due to the situation beyond its control. They are suffering severe losses as the authorities froze the company’s bank accounts, alongside restrictions on opening letter of credit (LC). However, they somehow managed to continue production and supplies. 

The S Alam subsidiary explained that the Janata Bank’s move to auction mortgaged properties for Tk 20.3 billion will not directly affect its business. Nevertheless, they are preparing to initiate legal proceedings to stop the auction.

According to Janata Bank sources, they will be holding the auction for the mortgaged properties as per rules and have already published a notice in newspapers in this regard.