Procedures of Foreign Investment & Repatriation of Share Sale Proceeds
1. Scope of Works
- Facilitating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by forming new company or in existing local (Bangladeshi) companies by issuance of shares in favor of non-resident investors and transfer of shares regarding non-residents.
- Facilitating Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) via opening of Non-Resident Investor’s Taka Account (NITA) with any Authorized Dealers (ADs) in Bangladesh.
- Other Portfolio Investments i.e. Mutual Fund, Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) and Bangladesh Government Treasury Bond (BGTB).
2. Issuance of Shares in a bonafide company not listed with Stock Exchanges:
- No permission of Bangladesh Bank is required for issuance of shares favoring non-residents in non-listed bonafide / existing companies.
- Temporary Non-Resident Taka Account (NRTA) / Temporary Foreign Currency Accounts can be opened from abroad through one-stop-service (OSS) portal of BIDA. These temporary accounts help park foreign equity and make necessary preliminary expenditures before incorporation of the company.
- After the incorporation of the company, Temporary NRTA / FC accounts should be closed immediately and the balance lying therein shall be transferred to the new (permanent) account.
- In case of any disinvestment i.e. if the proposed venture does not take place, the unused funds are freely remittable abroad.
3. Purchase of Shares from an existing company not listed with Stock Exchanges:
- Foreign investor can purchase shares against remittance sent from abroad through formal banking channel and/or imported capital machinery in which payment is settled abroad by the investor.
- Before issuance of shares, remittance must be received and/or capital machinery must be cleared from the Bangladesh Customs. ADs shall ensure from relevant documents that purpose of the remittance is equity investment.
- After issuance of shares in favor of non-resident investors and completing necessary formalities with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC&F), Authorized Dealers (ADs) will scrutinize the relevant documents for issuance of shares amounting up to BDT 1.00 (one) million against cash consideration in a resident company. After scrutinizing they will submit a declaration letter within 14 days of such issuance to Foreign Exchange Investment Department (FEID), Bangladesh Bank.
- If the cumulative issue value exceeds Tk. 1.00 million in the name of a non-resident shareholder and/or all non-resident shareholders, ADs shall report to FEID, Bangladesh Bank.
- Share Money Deposit (SMD) will not be considered as equity component if the company fails to convert it into shares within 360 days of such receipt. The SMD must not be used in any purpose other than the main business of the company.
- Encashment of foreign equity is not mandatory if the share issuing companies are located in Bangladesh Export Processing Zones (BEPZ), Bangladesh Economic Zones (BEZ) and Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park (BHTP) areas. In addition, foreign equity (inward remittance) received by companies other than those specialized zones may be kept by opening foreign currency accounts (FCA) in the name of investee companies for a period of one (01) year and balances can be used for meeting overseas capital expenditures.
4. Transfer of Shares not listed with stock exchanges:
FEID, Bangladesh Bank has to be intimated within 14 days of the execution of the transfer related to non-residents.
(A) Resident (R) to Non-resident (NR) and Non-resident (NR) to Non-resident (NR):
- No prior approval required .
- Valuation report (issued by a Merchant Banker licensed by Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) or a Chartered Accountant listed by BB and/or BSEC) is mandatory if deal value exceeds Tk. 1 (one) million.
Apart from that in case of R to NR transfer, Encashment Certificate (EC) in favor of resident must be ensured. On occasion of NR to NR transfer, related stamp duty / capital gain tax (whichever is applicable) must be brought in from abroad.
(B) Non-resident to Resident (Repatriation of Sale Proceed of Shares):
- No approval if-
- Transfer value (TF) ≤ NAV and fulfill some other conditions (such as no revaluation reserve, intangible assets, expenses/loss shown as asset etc.); any amount repatriable, no valuation report required.
- TF > NAV, and TF ≤ BDT 10 million (valuation report not required)
- TF > NAV, and BDT 10 million ≤ TF ≤ BDT 100 million (amount repatriable by ADs on submission of valuation report)
- TF > BDT 100 million prior approval from FEID, BB is required.
- Fair value of the shares accepted by Bangladesh Bank based on appropriate combination of three valuation approaches (viz. net asset value approach, market value approach and discounted cash flow approach) or on any of the suitable approaches depending on the nature of the company.
5. Repatriation of Dividend:
If the issuance and transfer of shares regarding non-residents are duly reported in this department, the dividend against these shares are repatriable without any prior approval from Bangladesh Bank.
6. Sale Proceeds of Shares of the public limited companies listed with Stock Exchange(s):
Prior approval of Bangladesh Bank is not necessary for remitting the sale proceeds of securities held by non-residents. In such cases, repatriable amount must not exceed the market price of securities prevailing in the stock exchange on the date of sales.
7. Portfolio investment by non-residents:
Non-resident investors may buy Bangladeshi shares and securities listed with stock exchanges in Bangladesh against freely convertible foreign currency remitted from abroad through the banking channel and transactions regarding such investments including repatriation of dividend/interest earnings and sale proceeds shall be made through a Non-resident Investor's Taka Account (NITA). Other portfolio investment options for foreigners in Bangladesh are Mutual Fund, Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) and Bangladesh Government Treasury Bond (BGTB).
8. Winding Up/ Liquidation:
- Prior permission of FEID, BB is required;
- If by the court:
- The court order evidencing endorsement of the amount determined to be distributed to the shareholders after paying up all the liabilities and payments as per law;
- Certificate confirming that all liabilities in Bangladesh including tax claims and other statutory payment obligations have been fully paid, issued by liquidator/official receiver/or such person as the Government may, by notification in the official gazette.
- If voluntarily:
- Compliance of reporting as per GFET-2018 (Vol.-1), Chapter-9, Para-2(A) and 2(B) needs to be ensured by AD before forwarding application;
- Documents mentioned in the appendix-A of FEID Circular-1/2020, such as latest audited financial statements, newspaper and gazette notification as per Company Act, liquidator’s final statement reflecting liquidation proceeds/distributable realized value of asset, tax clearance certificate, CIB report etc.
9. Eligible Valuer List:
10. References:
Policy Framework:
- Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), 1947, amended up to 2015.
- Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions (GFET)-2018, issued by Bangladesh Bank.
- The Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act, 1980.
- The Companies Act, 1994.
Issuance of Share (FDI):
- FE Circular Letter No. 09 dated 07/05/2019
- FE Circular No. 10 dated 21/06/2023
- FE Circular No. 5 dated 14/01/2025
- FEID Circular No.1, dated 27/01/2025
For Investment in EPZs, EZs & HTPs:
- FE Circular No. 21 dated 16/05/2019
- FE Circular Letter No. 28 dated 17/11/2019
Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI):
- FEID Circular No. 02 dated 30/07/2018
- FE Circular No. 33 dated 20/08/2020
- FEID Circular No. 05 dated 10/08/2023
Transfer of Share:
- FEID Circular No.1, dated 06/05/2018
- FEID Circular Letter No.1, dated 18/06/2020
Repatriation of Dividend:
- FE Circular No. 26 dated 07/07/2020
- FE Circular No. 29 dated 21/07/2020
Share Money Deposit:
- FEID Circular No.2, dated 05/02/2020
Liquidation/ Winding Up:
- FEID Circular No.1, dated 05/02/2020