State-owned Janata Bank has auctioned S Alam's property to recover the outstanding loan. Janata Bank has announced to auction the collateral assets of Global Trading Corporation Ltd., one of the subsidiaries of the group, to recover defaulted loans of Tk 1,850 crore from S Alam Group.
On November 1, Janata Bank published a notice regarding the auction in the newspaper. In that notification, the auction date has been announced on November 20.
According to the bank's internal information, 1860 percent of S Alam Group's land in Chittagong and Gazipur has been mortgaged against this loan, the maximum market value of which is Tk 358 crore. This price is almost five times less than the amount owed. It is not possible to fully recover the defaulted debt by selling this property. Further legal action may be required to recover the outstanding balance. According to Section 12(3) of the Debt Court Act, it is possible to recover the money by selling the collateral property before the bank files a case.
According to an audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Bangladesh in 2021, the Global Trading Corporation has taken additional loans beyond the credit limit without following the guidelines of Bangladesh Bank.
According to the report, in 2012, Global Trading Corporation initially took a loan of Tk 650 crore from Janata Bank's Chittagong corporate branch located in General Insurance Building. This loan has reached a total of one thousand 70 crore 65 lakh taka with interest till 2021. Of this, Tk 617.47 crore is PAD (Payment Against Document), Tk 223.18 crore is LTR (Trust Receipt) loan and Tk 229.99 crore is CC hypo loan. The amount of loan with interest increased to 1 thousand 850 crores in September 2024.
