BUSINESSMONITOR

Akij Bashir Group, one of Bangladesh's leading business conglomerates, is entering the country's growing paint market by establishing a manufacturing plant at Akij Economic Zone in Trishal of Mymensingh. Currently, multinational companies hold around 85% of the paint market share in Bangladesh, leaving little room for local manufacturers. The group aims to produce a variety of paints, including household, decorative, and industrial paints, focusing on quality, innovation, and variation.

Promixco Limited, a well-known manufacturer of medical equipment in the nation, and Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ), an organization in India, have inked an agreement to make it easier to develop cutting-edge, affordable medical equipment. Although Promixco is building an incubation center in Bangladesh to give students and researchers cutting-edge resources to learn about cutting-edge innovations, AMTZ is India's first manufacturing hub for medical devices.

Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL) and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) have signed a Master Forfaiting Agreement with ADCB and successfully completed a pilot forfaiting transaction, under "the Uniform Rules for Forfaiting (ICC Publication no. 800)", recently. In the pilot transaction, ADCB purchased an export LC risk under the forfaiting agreement with Eastern Bank and provided immediate cash on a without recourse basis while Eastern Bank handled all the documents under the LC for the exporter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to bring money laundering charges against the managing director of the scam-hit Universal Financial Solutions (UFS) and his collaborators for stealing Tk 2.35 billion from four open-end mutual funds. UFS Popular Life Unit Fund, UFS-Padma Life Islamic Unit Fund, UFS-IBBL Shariah Unit Fund, and UFS-Bank Asia Unit Fund are the unit funds involved in the misappropriation.