A Chinese consortium, comprising the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is likely to win approval from the members of the Dhaka Stock Exchange to become the strategic partner of the bourse.

The exchange will hold an extraordinary general meeting today at the Purbani Hotel where its members are expected to give a nod to the proposal of the Chinese consortium.

The meeting has been convened about a month after the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) instructed the DSE to send a revised proposal to it upon receiving consent from the members.

KAM Majedur Rahman, managing director of the bourse, said: “We are hopeful of getting the approval from the DSE members and the BSEC.”

He said the bourse would send the revised proposal to the regulator after getting the approval.

A senior official of the BSEC, requesting anonymity, said yesterday: “We are going to approve the proposal of the Chinese consortium tomorrow.”

The regulator had earlier sent back the proposal raising questions about some legal aspects of the previous bid.

“We instructed the DSE to send the revised proposal after getting the approval from the DSE members,” said the BSEC official.

The exchange is trying to get a strategic partner in line with the Demutualisation Act 2013.

As per the Act, existing shareholders, known as trading right entitlement certificate-holders or TREC-holders, will retain 40 percent shares of the exchange.

The bourse will sell 25 percent shares to the strategic partner. The remaining shares will be sold to institutional and general investors through an initial public offering.

The Chinese consortium has proposed Tk 22 for each share and will provide a technical support worth $37 million. The Act makes it mandatory for the DSE to sell shares to the strategic partner within five years of the demutualisation.

In June last year, the DSE floated a tender and received a proposal from a local investor.

LankaBangla Finance in partnership with Delta Life Insurance had proposed more than Tk 30 a share.

But the board did not accept the bid as it was interested in making foreign investors the strategic partner in order to ensure transfer of technical know-how and experience.

This led to the floatation of another tender this year. This time, the Chinese consortium as well as a consortium, comprising the National Stock Exchange of India, Nasdaq stockmarket of the US and Frontier Fund Bangladesh, took part in the bidding.

The Indian exchange-led consortium had offered Tk 15 per share.