Confidence Power Hits the IPO Trail With a Tk400 Crore Solar Float, Bangladesh's First Roadshow in Three Years

Confidence Power held its IPO roadshow on October 18 at the Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden, the first such event in Bangladesh's capital market in nearly three years. The company wants to raise Tk400 crore through the book building method to fund two solar power projects, and the numbers from its latest annual accounts give investors plenty to weigh before the books open.

• Confidence Power is raising Tk400 crore through book building, its first roadshow since Techno Drugs raised Tk100 crore in October 2023.
• Revenue fell 26 percent to Tk1,770.85 crore in FY26 from Tk2,399.73 crore a year earlier, while net profit held up better, down just 1.85 percent to Tk477.41 crore.
• Tk332 crore of the raise goes directly into two new 100MW solar projects in Cox's Bazar and Mongla, each backed by a 20 year power purchase agreement with the state grid.
• The roadshow is part of a broader thaw in Bangladesh's IPO market, which regulators have been trying to unstick with faster approval timelines and new listing routes.

The numbers at a glance

Use of Tk400 crore IPO proceeds	Amount
100MW solar project, Cox's Bazar (North), Chattogram	Tk230 crore
Investment in Confidence and Doreen Power (100MW Mongla solar)	Tk102 crore
Partial loan repayment	Tk60 crore
IPO expenses	Tk8 crore

UCB Investment Limited is managing the issue and Prime Bank Investment PLC is the registrar. Neither the per-share price nor the number of shares on offer has been disclosed yet, which is normal at the roadshow stage under the book building method, where institutional investors first bid to help set the price band before retail investors get a fixed cut off price.

A company whose profits are proving sturdier than its revenue

Consolidated revenue for the year ended June 30, 2026 fell 26 percent to Tk1,770.85 crore from Tk2,399.73 crore, but gross profit actually rose, from Tk626.27 crore to Tk641.40 crore, and net profit after tax slipped just 1.85 percent to Tk477.41 crore. Earnings per share came in at Tk31.43, down from Tk32.43. In plain terms, Confidence Power sold less but kept more of what it sold, a margin story rather than a demand story, and one that will matter more to book building investors than the top line decline on its own.

What the Tk400 crore actually buys

The bulk of the raise, Tk332 crore between the two projects, goes into expanding solar capacity. The Cox's Bazar project will add 100MW on a 20 year power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board, while the Mongla project, held through Confidence and Doreen Power Limited in which Confidence Power holds a 60 percent stake, adds another 100MW under similar terms. Only Tk60 crore goes toward trimming existing debt, and Tk8 crore covers the listing itself.

This is a company betting its public listing on renewable energy rather than using it to shore up a balance sheet. The Confidence Group says it plans to invest more than Tk4,000 crore in solar power by 2028, including a separate 200MW plant planned for Fatikchhari in Chattogram at a cost of around Tk2,000 crore. Group capacity targets run to roughly 1,000MW by 2029, 1,960MW by 2032 and 2,160MW by 2035, with current capacity at 393MW across four plants in Bogura, Rangpur and Chattogram.

Why a roadshow is itself news

Bangladesh's primary market has been largely dormant on this front; the last comparable roadshow was Techno Drugs' Tk100 crore raise in October 2023, nearly three years ago. Regulators have spent much of this year trying to unclog the IPO pipeline, including doubling the direct listing threshold and floating Dutch auction mechanisms to speed up pricing, moves this site covered when the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission announced them. Confidence Power's roadshow, drawing representatives of both the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges alongside eligible investors, auditors and merchant bankers, is the clearest sign yet that at least one large issuer is willing to test whether that thaw is real.

The choice of sector is not an accident either. Bangladesh's power generation has leaned heavily on gas and imported fuel for decades, and both have grown more expensive as regional energy prices climb, which makes a company locking in 20 year, taka denominated revenue from solar an easier story to sell to local institutional investors than a cyclical exporter would be right now. Energy stocks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange have also drawn attention this year as power shortages squeezed earnings at gas dependent firms, so a renewable generator floating new shares arrives at a moment when the market is already thinking hard about which energy companies are insulated from that squeeze and which are not.

What it means for you

For retail investors who track IPOs, the signal here is less about Confidence Power specifically and more about whether book building issues can draw a crowd again after years of a largely frozen pipeline; demand at this roadshow, not yet public, will likely shape pricing for the next issuer in line. For anyone already holding Confidence Power or its listed affiliates, the margin resilience despite falling revenue is the number to sit with, since it says more about cost control than the headline sales figure does. And for anyone comparing where to park savings while waiting for the subscription window to open, it is worth checking current fixed income options through the site's FDR rate comparison tool, since a book building IPO can take weeks to move from roadshow to listing.