Chittagong, Bangladesh-based Meenhar Group has closed down after a bank filed suit against it seeking BDT 1.78 billion (USD 16.1 million, EUR 14.7 million).
Bangladesh’s One Bank, which had supplied a loan facility to the company since 2011, filed three separate suits against Meenhar Group subsidiaries in July 2023, seeking BDT 790 million (USD 7.2 million, EUR 6.5 million) from Meenhar Sea Foods, BDT 456 million (USD 4.2 million, EUR 3.8 million) from Meenhar Fisheries, and BDT 223 million (USD 2 million, EUR 1.8 million) from Meenhar Marine Foods. The business, which had already shut down operations, is now being wound down by its owner, according to The Business Standard.
Meenhar Group Founder and Managing Director Habibullah Khan was also named as a defendant in the suits, along with his wife and company chairman Yasmin Khan, his son and company director Habib Ahasan Khan, his daughter and director Tahsin Khan, and another company director, Debapriyo Barua, according to the Bangladeshi newspaper. An initial hearing on the suits was scheduled for 18 October but was delayed to January 2024 due to the judge’s absence.
According to the lawsuits, One Bank had no issues with Meenhar Group until 2019, when it fell behind on its loan payments. In previous years, it had invested in modernizing its processing equipment and expanded from frozen wild-caught shrimp to fish processing and exporting. But a decline in domestic catches – as well as catches in Myanmar, its secondary source of shrimp – an overall decline in shrimp prices due to the expansion of vannamei shrimp farming in Asia, and a fading of Bangladesh’s reputation for quality shrimp reversed the company’s fortunes, according to the Business Standard. It began losing money in 2016, and by 2019 it was forced to shut down its operations entirely.
During its heyday, the company's processing plants in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazaar operated five shrimp trawlers and one whitefish trawler, and exported frozen shrimp and fish sold under the Jasmine brand to 20 countries, including the United States, the European Union, and Japan.
"Meenhar Sea Foods is a well-known company in the seafood export sector. The company secured the loan facility by dint of its good reputation in business,” a One Bank spokesperson told the Business Standard. “However, due to the ups and downs in prices in the domestic and international markets and various relevant reasons, the company has become a defaulter. We have already taken all legal measures to collect the loan. In addition, discussions are ongoing with the company's high-ups on the matter.”
Khan told the newspaper his company had been profitable since 1978, when it was founded, and that its exports had surpassed BDT 2 billion (USD 18.1 million, EUR 16.5 million)
"We built the factory with the investment assistance of the bank. We created employment for people in the fisheries, processing, and export sectors. We have contributed to export earnings. In the end, we could not repay the bank's debt due to poor business for several consecutive years,” he said. “Before closing down the factory, we proposed to repay the loan with 70 percent of the total dues in 2018. But the bank did not come forward to resolve the issue. We have paid hundreds of crores of taka in interest to the bank. Since our business has closed down, we are unable to repay the money as demanded by the bank at this time. However, we have the intention to repay the bank's loans. In this case, the bank must also come forward."
Photo courtesy of Meenhar Group
