Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Errant Hallmark Group has publicly disappeared with shutting down of its mills, factories and business firms, but there is none to come forward to buy the properties to recover Sonali Bank’s lost money.
Earlier, the state-run bank filed cases against 18 corporate entities of the little-known Hallmark Group to recover over Tk 2,700 crore.
Sonali Bank (SB) has already taken hold of 10 entities of Hallmark Group as per the Court order, but when it comes for auction nobody is making any bid to buy the properties.
By losing all such assets, Hallmark Group is no more in the visibility but Sonali Bank is helpless to monetize the assets to recover its loan.
The bank had found no bidder during auctions held on November 13 and November 23 to sell seven corporate entities of the little-known Hallmark Group, according to a Sonali Bank’s latest report on Hallmark Group’s loan recovery. The seven business entities are: Hallmark Accessories Limited, Bobby Denims, Walmart Fashion, Bobby Flatbed Printing Limited, Hallmark Knit Composite, Zishan Composite Mills and Hallmark Denim Composite Mills.
The bank also floated bids in April and June this year to sell the factories, but it found no bidder.
“We held auctions of Hallmark properties after decrees issued by the concerned court”, a Sonali Bank official told The New Nation yesterday, seeking anonymity.
He said, “The aim of the auction was raising fund from the sale of Hallmark assets.”
When asked, the Sonali Bank official said, the Legal Affairs Division of the bank is closely monitoring the latest status of all the Hallmark related cases and pursuing them with utmost sincerity to win the legal battle as well as recover the bank’s money.
“The bank has already involved a panel of lawyers to move the cases,” he added.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) unearthed over Tk 3,500 crore loan scam in Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch in May 2012. Of the sum, Hallmark alone took Tk 2,686 crore providing forged documents in connivance with some bank officials.
