ACI to form joint venture with London-based biscuits maker

ACI Ltd, one of major diversified business houses in Bangladesh, today said its board has approved an arrangement to form a joint venture company with London-based United United Biscuits Topco Limited to make biscuits here and serve customers.

The name of the proposed joint venture company will be "Pladis ACI Bangladesh Limited". 

ACI will nvest about Tk 50 crore in the next two years against its 49 percent shareholding in the proposed company, ACI said in a disclosure for its shareholders. 

"Approval of this arrangement with "pladis" is subject to the usual condition precedents and other regulatory approvals," the company said.

Shares of the ACI remained unchanged at the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The ACI, which has presence in food business, seeks to sign up for biscuit manufacturing the time when the market for biscuit has expanded thanks to rising income.

A top official of the ACI Ltd seeking to remain unnamed, said quality consciousness among Bangladesh's customers had grown and ACI wants to serve customers better by forging joint venture with an international company.

"We have a good distribution network and we operate on diversified areas. We have a focus on how to bring global capabilities," the official said.

The factory is planned to be established near Dhaka. But production plan and time of launching are yet to be finalised, he added.

ACI incurred Tk 49 crore losses in the financial year 2022-23 resulting from an increase in the price of dollars and higher energy and borrowing costs.

During the July-September quarter of 2023-24 financial year, ACI's losses reduced to Tk 14.10 crore from Tk 18.59 crore the same period a year ago, according to its unaudited financial statements published today. 

Losses per share declined to Tk 2.07 in the first quarter of the financial year from Tk 3.75 a year ago, it said.