Premier Leasing and Finance Limited

Premier Leasing and Finance Limited , also known as PLFL, is a major non-bank financial institution in Bangladesh that provides leasing finance.^[4]

Premier Leasing and Finance Limited

Industry	Financial services
Founded	1995; 28 years ago (1995)
Headquarters	Dhaka , Bangladesh
Key people	Abu Sadek Md. Sohel (Chairman), Md. Fazlur Rahman (Managing director)^[1]^[2]^[3]
Website	www.premierleasing.com.bd

History

Premier Leasing and Finance Limited was established on 26 September 2001 as Premier Leasing International Limited.^[5]

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission approved initial public offering by Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2005.^[6] At the same time, it approved the IPO's of Progressive Life Insurance Company Limited, Sonar Bangla Insurance Company Limited, and Islamic Finance and Investment Limited.^[6]

In 2007, Premier Leasing International Limited was renamed to Premier Leasing and Finance Limited.^[5]

Mizanur Rahman Shelley was reelected chairman of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2009.^[7] SM Shamsul Alam was appointed managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2010.^[8]

In June 2012, AZM Akramul Haq was re-elected chairman of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited.^[9]

SM Shamsul Alam was re-appointed managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2013.^[8] SM Shafiqul Islam Mamun was reelected chairman of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2015.^[10] Abdul Hamid Mia was appointed the managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2016.^[11]

In 2019, almost 30 percent or 450 million taka of all loans of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited had defaulted.^[12] AZM Akramul Haq was elected chairman of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited in 2019.^[13] It's creditors, Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited and Janata Bank Limited, were having difficulty recovering their money from it.^[14]

On 4 December 2020, Bangladesh Bank appointed AKM Mohiuddin Azad administrator of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited following an order of Bangladesh High Court.^[15] Bangladesh Bank refused to accept the resignation letter of Abdul Hamid Mia, the managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited, in March 2021.^[16] During his tenure at the institution its financials declined significantly.^[16] The loans were defaulted with the help of Md. Shah Alam who was a senior official of Bangladesh Bank and an aid of swindler PK Halder.^[17] The total defaulted loan of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited stood at 7.66 billion taka.^[18] It has also failed to recover 1.94 billion taka deposit from BASIC Bank Limited.^[18]

Subash Chandra Moulick, managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited, said it was finding it difficult to pay back large amounts to banks in February 2022.^[19] In April 2022, Md. Fazlur Rahman was appointed the managing director of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited.^[20] In August 2022, ASM Feroz Alam, vice-chairman of Mercantile Bank Limited, was elected chairman of Premier Leasing Securities, subsidiary of Premier Leasing and Finance Limited.^[21]

Subsidiaries

• Premier Leasing Securities^[12]
• Premier Leasing Capital Management^[12]
• Premier Leasing Securities Broking^[12]

References

1. "Premier Leasing & Finance Ltd". www.premierleasing.com.bd. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
2. "Fazlur Rahman joins Premier Leasing & Finance Limited as MD". New Age. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
3. "Sadek elected Premier Leasing chair". New Age. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
4. "ASM Feroz Alam re-elected as chairman of Premier Leasing Securities". The Business Standard. 2022-08-01. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
5. "Premier Leasing & Finance Ltd". www.premierleasing.com.bd. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
6. "Four NBFIs get SEC nod to go public". The Daily Star. bdnews. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
7. "Premier Leasing chairman re-elected". The Daily Star. 2009-06-28. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
8. "Premier Leasing reappoints managing director". The Daily Star. 2013-07-19. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
9. "Premier Leasing & Finance re-elects chair". The Daily Star. 2012-06-13. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
10. "Premier Leasing re-elects office bearers". The Daily Star. 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
11. "Premier Leasing gets new MD". The Daily Star. 2016-05-01. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
12. Habib, Ahsan (2020-10-01). "Premier Leasing's classified loans surge 114pc". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
13. "AZM Akramul Haq chairman of Premier Leasing and Finance". The Daily Star. 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
14. Uddin, AKM Zamir (2021-01-27). "Commerce Bank, Janata run into a quagmire". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
15. "BB appoints administrator at troubled Premier Leasing". The Daily Star. 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
16. Uddin, AKM Zamir (2021-03-02). "BB refuses to let Premier Leasing MD go". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
17. "Premier Leasing is moribund and it is also thanks to a BB executive". Dhaka Tribune. 2021-02-23. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
18. "6 NBFIs burdened with Tk6,916cr default loans". The Business Standard. 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
19. Uddin, AKM Zamir (2022-02-10). "Troubled NBFIs render Tk 1,000cr bank loans sour". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
20. "New MD for Premier Leasing". The Daily Star. 2022-04-06. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
21. "Feroz Alam re-elected PLSL chairman". New Age. Retrieved 2022-10-15.