The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has issued the final gazette of the Public Offer of Securities Rules, 2025, allowing issuing companies to use up to 30 percent of funds raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) to repay bank loans. The decision, published on December 30, 2025, includes two conditions: the loan must be project or BMRE-related, and it cannot be a defaulted or rescheduled loan.

The previous draft of the regulation did not permit loan repayment from IPO proceeds, which had raised concerns among market participants about reduced corporate interest in stock market listings. Based on stakeholder feedback, BSEC reinstated the repayment option, similar to the one-third allowance under the 2015 rules. The new regulation also increases the quota for general investors and reintroduces the lottery system for IPO share allocation.

Additionally, the rules extend the IPO application submission period to 120 days and require stock exchange recommendations for IPO approvals. The number of qualified institutional investors for determining indicative prices in the book-building method has been reduced from 75 to 40.