For dues, bank puts up Citycell office for sale

National Bank Ltd (NBL) has put up Citycell's head office for sale after the mobile operator failed to pay back its loan of Tk 454.45 crore.

The bank published an advertisement yesterday in a newspaper requesting for tenders to purchase the 38,800 square feet floor space with 5.04 decimal of land in Mohakhali area. Interested parties can submit their offer by June 15, according to the advertisement.

Citycell, which has been out of service since October last year, said it is in the process of paying back the sum owed to NBL and has already opened talks with the bank on the issue.

“After we saw the advertisement we contacted the bank's top management and they said they will cancel the process by publishing another advertisement on the same newspaper this week,” said Faisal Morshed Khan, son of Citycell Chairman Morshed Khan. Choudhury Moshtaq Ahmed, the acting managing director of the bank, did not respond to phone calls and messages from The Daily Star.  Khan said they have already paid the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission's dues and will gradually pay back NBL's entire unpaid loan.

There are also talks with a foreign party to sell out Citycell, Khan said. “Discussion is on the table right now,” he added.

Earlier, the BTRC brought down the curtains on the country's oldest mobile operator over dues amounting to Tk 477 crore pertaining to spectrum and licence fees, revenue sharing and late penalty.

After the cancellation of its spectrum, Citycell had paid Tk 230.19 crore to the BTRC along with Tk 14 crore as tax to National Board of Revenue, according to court documents.

Citycell disputes the amount claimed by the BTRC, so the High Court formed a committee to settle the matter. The committee is still working on it.

After getting back its spectrum Citycell is yet to re-start its commercial operations as most of its towers across the country went under lock and key for non-payment of house rent, electricity bills and employees' salaries.

Recently, a group of employees served a legal notice to Citycell over their mounting amount of unpaid salaries and other benefits.

Citycell began its operations in 1993, though its licence was awarded in 1989.

Singapore's SingTel owns 44.54 percent shares in Citycell, Pacific Motors 37.95 percent and Far East Telecom 17.51 percent.

Shareholders had been trying for the last few years to sell the operator's licence but in vain.  

The operator's subscription reached a peak of 19 lakh in 2011, but before the suspension of spectrum its customer base stood at 1.25 lakh only. In fiscal 2014-15, its total revenue stood at Tk 139.77 crore, while its investment was zero, according to the BTRC's annual report.