Sonali Paper Bangladesh begins production at aluminium foil packaging line

Sonali Paper and Board Mill Ltd, a paper manufacturer from Bangladesh, is about to set its first foot in the aluminium sector by beginning commercial production of its latest product line of aluminium foil papers on August 29, 2022.

The next day itself, during filing its details at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Sonali Paper and Board Mill Ltd claimed that the aluminium foil plant’s production capacity is estimated to be 2.8 crore pieces each year, which would yield an annual revenue of Tk19.6 crore.

As early as May 2021, Sonali Paper had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese enterprise Zhangjiagang Fineness Aluminium Foil Company to construct an aluminium foil paper factory in Rupganj, a sub-district of Narayanganj, a district in Bangladesh.

The secretary of Sonali Paper and Board Mill Ltd, Rashedul Hossain Imon, declared that most of the aluminium foils found in Bangladesh are outsourced, while the emerging local market has an intense requirement for this product.

Bangladesh imported more than US$69 million worth of aluminium foil paper in the Financial Year 2021.

Rashedul Hossain Imon stated: “We set up the factory which will produce four types of aluminium foil paper through automation through our own finances.”

Aluminium foil is a daily utility product as it is applicable in family functions, where packing food is a necessary activity; it is used in airline industries for the safe stewardship of unadulterated food and also in the baking industries.

Industrial aluminium foils are usually required in gadgets, cigarettes and the food or snacks packaging sector. 

Moreover, aluminium foil packages are open to customizations in regards to colour, coating and embossing on the outside, according to the requirement of a definite user.

Sonali Paper and Board Mill Ltd was initiated in 1977 and got enlisted in the Dhaka bourse in 1985, after eight years.

The company’s shares have been traded at the DSE’s over-the-counter (OTC) market for more than a decade because it has failed to abide by the listing regulations.

After such a huge gap, in 2020, the company was able to display its permanency as it bounced back with increased returns, solemnizing its place on the main board.

In the first nine months of the fiscal year 2021-22, total revenue closed in at Tk166.93 crore for the company, up by 3.91 per cent from the same period last year, which saw earnings of Tk112.36 crore. A major section of the revenue was through capital market investments.

Around the same time frame, the company’s net profit settled at Tk32.33 crore, followed by the capital market income, which came in at Tk26.05 crore.

The company gained Tk14.92 for each share while its net asset value per share stood at Tk249.99, as per the data found in March 2022.

The company’s 72.06 per cent stakes are owned by sponsor-directors, whereas the institutional investors add up for 5.54 per cent of the total holdings, and only 22.04 per cent of stakes are open to the general mass, as reported on April 30, 2021.

The last trading price to be flashed on the board of the Dhaka Stock Exchange for shares of Sonali Paper and Board Mill Ltd was Tk729.8 each on August 30.