Haque Specialized Group's News

Unilever is preparing a 6 billion pound ($7.44 billion) sale of some of its food brands, British newspapers reported on Saturday. The Anglo-Dutch company is planning to sell Flora margarine and Stork butter brands, the Sunday Times said. The Sunday Telegraph, which also cited a 6 billion pounds figure, cited sources as saying private equity firms Bain Capital, CVC and Clayton Dubilier and Rice have started working on offers for the "spreads" business, citing sources. Unilever did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The maker of Knorr soups, Dove soap, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream rebuffed a surprise $143 billion takeover offer from Kraft Heinz last month.....

Published at: 2017-03-19 00:00:04

After four eventful days when law enforcers bust militant dens in port city while the militants attacked RAB outposts in the capital, police have come to know that militants were planning simultaneous attacks in Dhaka and Chittagong. Police officials have come to an understanding after analysing the information gathered from a militant couple arrested in Chittagong and types of suicide vests used as the munitions in Chittagong and during the attack on RAB in Dhaka.  Police's Additional Deputy Inspector General (Chittagong Range) Md Sakhawat Hossain said on Saturday that the attacks on RAB in Dhaka just after the raids on militant dens in Chittagong "prove that more than one group are active now", reports bdnews24.com.   "The suicidal vests used in Sitakunda and Dhaka were similar. It seems to review the incidents that they had plans to carry out attacks in different places in Dhaka and Chittagong soon," he said. Informed by the landlord, police raided a house at Namar Bazar in Chittagong's Sitakunda and arrested a couple Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, the law enforcers came under attack while raiding another house in adjacent Premtala area following the information was given by the couple. The raid ended after 19 hours on Thursday morning through the death of two suspects in a suicide blast and two others in police assault at the final stage of the operation. A child also died in the explosion. On Friday, just before Juma prayers, a suicide bomber died in a blast during an attack on a RAB camp in Dhaka's Ashkona located near the airport. Two personnel of the elite force were injured, not seriously, though. Another suspect was caught in the area and died of 'cardiac arrest' in custody, RAB said. Within a day of the attack, on Saturday morning, a suicide attacker was killed after RAB opened fire to foil an assault on a security check-post at Khilgaon in Dhaka. Sakhawat said two suspects, identified as 'Hridoy' and 'Rashed', left the Namar Bazar house with a laptop immediately before the raid began on Wednesday. According to the landlord, Subhas Chandra Das, the eldest of the two was around 25 years old while the other was a 15-year-old boy. Subhas also said the tenants aroused suspicion when he saw a huge amount of electronic equipment and circuits at the flat. "The youth of 25 to 26 years of age was working with the equipment. He has a laptop at the time," he added. The couple arrested from the house have been identified as 'Jashim' and 'Arjina'. Those killed in the Premtala raid also included a couple identified by police as Kamal Uddin and 'Jobaida'. Both the couples are from Baishari of Naikkhyangchharhi in Bandarban, police said. Additional DIG Sakhawat said the group of militants were in Chittagong's Potia three months before renting the houses in Sitakunda. "There are many development projects underway in Mirsharai and Sitakunda. Many foreigners work in those projects. "We suspect the militants wanted to carry out simultaneous attacks in Dhaka and Chittagong to bar development work," Sakhawat said. Police's bomb disposal unit searched another room of the flat in Premtala on Saturday and found 15 strong bombs and a huge amount of bomb-making materials, Chittagong Superintendent of Police Noore Alam Mina, said. Six drums full of liquids were also discovered in the room. One of those contains acid while the others hydrogen peroxide. Two more rooms in the flat are yet to be searched. "We are conducting the search very carefully because the bombs are very powerful," the SP said. Four suicidal vests and six bombs were found in the house after the raid ended on Thursday. Sakhawat said the words - 'Daulatul Islam' - were written on the wall of the flat. "We are emphasising this matter in our investigation," he added.  ....

Published at: 2017-03-19 00:00:04

Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc will have to amend their terms of service for European users within a month or face the risk of fines, a European Commission official said on Friday. The social media companies have faced tight scrutiny in Europe for the way they do business, from privacy to how quickly they remove illegal or threatening content. The Commission and European consumer protection authorities will "take action to make sure social media companies comply with EU consumer rules," the official said. Germany , the most populous EU state, it planned a new law calling for social networks to remove slanderous or threatening online postings quickly or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million). The authorities sent letters to the companies saying that some of their service terms broke EU consumer protection law and that they needed to do more to tackle fraud and scams on their websites. The companies were proposed some ways to resolve the issues and discussed with the authorities on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter said, adding that the meeting was constructive. Google and Facebook were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for Twitter declined to comment, according to Reuters.....

Published at: 2017-03-18 00:00:07

The number of companies, engaged exclusively in organising fairs and expositions, has marked a substantial rise over the years on the back of an ever-growing demand for the country's businesses and industries to promote their products and trade services both at home and abroad. Industry insiders say although there were only a few such organisers merely a decade ago, the number of such companies emerged specially after 2004 in the wake of organising a mega business promotion show titled 'Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition (BATEXPO)' by the country's largest export-earning sector to promote their business and thereby create an avenue for greater affiliation with their foreign buyers and other stakeholders. More than 100 fairs and trade shows on different products and services representing various industries and sectors were organised by some dozens of fair organising companies in the country over the period of last two years, they said. Exhibitions and trade shows were held on products and services representing the textile and garments machinery, accessories, dyeing and chemical, fabric, food and agriculture, agro chemical, fire equipments, motor and bike, auto companies, medical equipment, health tourism, construction material, solar and power, real estate, poultry, dairy, plastic and packaging, leather and leather goods and so on. "A fair brings on display all the latest equipments and technologies, designs, developments, and fashion trend in different promising sectors where buyers and sellers can find those under a single umbrella without having faced with any hazard," said Rubaiyat Ahsan, Chief Executive Officer of exhibition management firm Alliant. The annual turnover of the fair management sector is estimated to be at least Tk 4.0 billion, he said. His company Alliant is a joint-venture between entrepreneurs based in Bangladesh, Taiwan and Malaysia and has been organising fairs over the period of 19 years. The company did organise the annual BATEXPO twelve times since 1998, he added. According to Abdul Kader Khan, President of Bangladesh Garments Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA), "Participants and visitors - both are important to make a trade show or fair successful and organisers can do the management in a better and organised way as they have experience and good communication." The sector's annual exhibition namely 'Gapexo' is jointly organised by his association and the Ask Trade and Exhibition Pvt. Ltd. It's not possible for entrepreneurs to go to several countries to see the latest technology as it is time-consuming and costly, but they can find all the latest developments in their sector by attending such shows, he added. Meherun N Islam, Group President and Managing Director of CEMS-Global, USA and Asia pacific, said there was hardly any competitor in the sector over the decade, but a number of firms are working as exhibition organisers these days. "Exhibition is a direct marketing tool which is very necessary in context of the present world as innovations and new items are coming through exhibitions," she said, adding, such shows are very much needed for Bangladesh as the country does not produce all the raw materials required for its industries. "We think Bangladesh is on the route of growth with steady political climate and constant growth rate," said Nanda Gopal K, Director of ASK Trade and Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd, another company that organises trade shows in the country. The success of RMG sector was followed by the leather sector and gradual growth in the engineering, wood work and building construction sectors are the clear indicators of the potentials and growths here, he observed. Trade shows also present opportunities to the sellers who are at a distance from the market, he said, explaining that for these companies, the buyers usually don't have easy access to them because of the long distances, because they might be a third party vendor, or because they do not typically need to directly speak to the client. Trade shows provide access to buyers in such a way that no other marketing strategy can match, he added. Bangladesh Denim Expo which is held twice a year showcases denim fabrics for which buyers from across the world come to visit it and this show has been significantly contributing to increase denim exports, said Mostafiz Uddin, Managing Director of Denim Expert Ltd, also a show organiser.     munni_fe@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-03-18 00:00:07

Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BBA) has constituted a high-powered committee aiming to purchase three Bombardier Dash 8 Q400NG aircraft on US$ 70 million credit from Canada, officials said. The committee will negotiate and finalise agreements with the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), Export Development Canada (EDC) and Bombardier Inc., Canada's largest aerospace company, for purchasing and financing of three aircraft, they added. The procurement mechanism would be implemented under government-to-government (G2G) arrangements. The three aircraft would be released at the end of 2018. The price of the three aircraft is about US$ 70 million. The board of directors of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in its meeting took the decision to procure the three aircraft from Canada. Bombardier, the world's third largest plane maker, is headquartered in Montréal, Canada. The management of the national flag carrier took decision to obtain French-Italian-based ATR 72 and Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. Later, the management chose to procure Dash 8 Q400 aircraft instead of ATR 72, Shakil Meraj, General Manager (Public Relations) and focal point of BBA, told the FE on Wednesday. A committee has already been formed for negotiation and finalisation of the deal to purchase three Canadian aircraft. Sovereign guarantee would be taken if necessary, he said. With new aircraft, the flight operation on local and regional routes will be smoother. The frequency of flight cancellation will be reduced significantly if the three Bombardier Dash 8 Q400NG aircraft join the fleet, a source concerned said.     rezamumu@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-03-18 00:00:07