The Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited, commonly known by its trade name BEXIMCO , is a multinationalconglomerateholding company headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was founded in the 1970s. Beximco is Bangladesh's largest conglomerate, with the largest market capitalisation on the country's stock market. BEXIMCO's subsidiaries export products to 103 countries worldwide. It has retail outlets in South Asia and Eastern Europe. Beximco operates one of the largest integrated textile production businesses in Asia. It is also a major global exporter of Jute yarn. Its chief manufacturing base is the Beximco Industrial Park in Gazipur, Bangladesh. Beximco Pharma, the group's pharmaceutical producer, was the first Bangladeshi firm to list on the London Stock Exchange. Beximco Pharmaceuticals is Bangladesh’s only US FDA Certified company with “World Class'' manufacturing and R&D facilities, with a global footprint in 50 countries. It became the first company in the world to launch a generic version of Remdesivir, which has been cleared by the US FDA.
History
The company was founded by brothers A. S. F. Rahman and Salman F Rahman in 1972, soon after the establishment of the Bangladeshi Republic. Their family was earlier engaged in the jute industry of East Pakistan, which once the world's largest jute producer and exporter. The family business was affected by a nationalisation program in Bangladesh during the early 1970s. However, with free market reforms in the late 1970s and 1980s, the family regained many of their businesses. Since the 1970s, Beximco has been a pioneer in Bangladeshi industry, including the modern textile sector, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and information and communication technology. In 2005, Beximco Pharma became the first Bangladeshi company to list on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. It also opened its first overseas retail outlet with the launch of the Yellow clothing brand in Karachi, Pakistan. Yellow has since expanded to several Bangladeshi and Pakistani cities. In 2009, Shinepukur Ceramics opened a showroom in Moscow, Russia. In 2010, the company acquired stakes in several major Bangladeshi businesses, including IFIC Bank, GMG Airlines, The Independent newspaper and Unique Hotels and Resorts. The company is considered to enjoy close connections with the Awami League, with Salman F Rahman serving as a Private Sector Development Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister and Bangladesh Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
According to an article in The International New York Times, Beximco said that it owed US$800 million to Bangladeshi banks. An American embassy cable released by WikiLeaks described Salman F Rahman as "allegedly one of Bangladesh's biggest loan defaulters". He was arrested for fraud by the military-backed interim government in 2008. Since 2009, the Bangladesh Bank has allowed Beximco to restructure its loan repayments. The group has alleged that the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party government tried to target it for Salman F Rahman's links's with the Awami League.
Stock manipulation
Beximco faced accusations of being one of the 60 primary parties involved in the 2011 Bangladesh share market scam. According to the High Court's judgment, no direct evidence had been found against any of the individuals or organizations accused in the case. Not only are the allegations against the accused uncertain, they have not been defined appropriately.
