A steadily growing pharmaceutical-and-chemicals formulator with a long, unbroken cash-dividend record and a committed sponsor owner — while rising debt and lumpy cash generation are the things to keep an eye on.

ACI Formulations PLC is a Bangladeshi company in the pharmaceuticals and chemicals sector. Its name describes its work: it formulates — mixes, processes and packages — chemical and pharmaceutical ingredients into finished, ready-to-sell products. It has been a listed, publicly traded company since 2008, so it has been on the market for roughly 18 years.

By size it is a mid-sized firm. It made about 517 crore taka of sales in its latest year (2025) and holds about 858 crore taka of total assets. It has 4.72 crore shares in issue, each with a face value of 10 taka, and it sits in market category A — the exchange's top trading category.

Ownership is tightly held. The company's sponsors and directors own about 66% of the shares, institutions hold about 23%, and only about 11% is in the hands of the general public; there is no government or foreign ownership. Over years of trading it has built up reserves of about 306 crore taka — far larger than its paid-up capital of about 47 crore taka — which shows it has kept back and reinvested a great deal of past profit.

The company makes money in a straightforward way: it buys or produces active ingredients, formulates them into finished goods, and sells those products. Revenue is its lifeblood, and it has grown fairly steadily — from about 386 crore taka in 2021 to about 517 crore taka in 2025, a rise of about 34% over the five years.

Turning those sales into profit has improved too. Operating profit — what the core business earns before financing costs — rose every single year, from about 43 crore taka in 2021 to about 74 crore taka in 2025. That steady climb suggests the business is running a little more efficiently, or selling a better mix of products, or both.

One caution sits beneath the sales figure: the money the business actually collects in cash swings around a lot from year to year (more on that under financial health). Growing sales are good, but for this company it is worth watching whether those sales are being collected promptly.

The company is clearly profitable and growing. Net profit rose from about 21 crore taka in 2021 to about 37 crore taka in 2025 — an increase of about 74% over the span. The profit attached to each single share climbed from 4.74 taka to 7.85 taka, up about 66%.

The path was not perfectly smooth. There was a small dip in 2023, when profit eased to about 23.5 crore taka and per-share earnings slipped to 4.97 taka, before a strong recovery in 2024 and 2025. Overall the trend across the five years is clearly upward, and the last two years were the two best in the record.

One simple way to see the strength: against a face value of 10 taka per share, the company earned 7.85 taka of profit per share in its latest year — a healthy level next to the face value, and the highest in the five-year record.

The company sits on a solid base of its own money — shareholders' equity of about 357 crore taka in 2025 — supporting a growing asset base of about 858 crore taka. The asset value backing each share (its book value per share) rose to about 75.5 taka in 2025, up from about 67 taka in 2021.

The clearest caution is debt. Total borrowings have climbed from about 155 crore taka in 2021 to about 364 crore taka in 2025 — more than double. As a result the company now owes slightly more than it holds in its own money: the ratio of debt to its own money rose from 0.52 in 2021 to 1.02 in 2025. That is not alarming for a growing manufacturer, but it is a rising trend that adds interest cost and needs watching.

The second caution is cash. Reported profit does not reliably turn into cash in the bank. The cash the core business actually generates has been very bumpy: about 60 crore taka in 2021, then 34, then just 1 crore in 2023, back up to about 70 crore in 2024, and down again to about 3 crore in 2025 — even though 2025 was the most profitable year. The company's own quarterly updates blame slower collections and higher payments. Profit on paper is only as good as the cash it eventually brings in, so this gap is the single most important thing to keep an eye on here.

ACI Formulations has been a dependable dividend payer. It has paid a cash dividend in every one of the last five years: 30% of face value in 2021 (plus a small 5% stock dividend), 25% in 2022, 25% in 2023, 20% in 2024, and 25% again in 2025. On a face value of 10 taka, a 25% cash dividend means 2.5 taka per share.

Just as important, the dividend looks affordable. In its latest year the company earned 7.85 taka per share and paid out 2.5 taka — so it used only about a third of its profit for the dividend and kept the rest inside the business. A payout that leaves most of the profit reinvested is generally more sustainable than one that stretches to pay almost everything out.

This steady, moderate dividend fits the company's profile: a growing business that rewards shareholders every year while still holding back money to fund its expansion. The dividend measured as a percentage of today's price — the yield — changes with the price and is shown live beside this report.

ACI Formulations' real strengths are steadiness and alignment rather than market dominance. It has earned a profit and paid a dividend in every year of the record, its operating profit has risen each year, and its sponsors and directors hold about 66% of the shares — so the people running it have a large personal stake in it doing well.

On raw profitability, though, it sits in the middle of the pack. It earned about 37 crore taka of profit on about 357 crore taka of shareholders' money in 2025 — a return of roughly a tenth on the owners' money. That is respectable and broadly in line with a peer like ACME Laboratories (return on owners' money about 9%), but well below the sector's standout multinationals: Marico Bangladesh earns a return of about 78% and Reckitt Benckiser about 45% on their owners' money, and Square Pharmaceuticals about 15%.

In short, this is a solid, consistent operator in a competitive pharmaceuticals-and-chemicals field, not a category leader ringed by a wide protective wall. Its recent earnings growth has been strong, but it competes against larger and, in some cases, far more profitable rivals.

• Solid, multi-year earnings growth. Net profit rose about 74% and per-share earnings about 66% between 2021 and 2025, with operating profit climbing every single year to about 74 crore taka.
• An unbroken cash-dividend record. A cash dividend in each of the last five years (20–30% of face value), comfortably covered by profit — only about a third of earnings is paid out.
• A strongly aligned owner. Sponsors and directors hold about 66% of the shares, so management's interests are tied closely to those of ordinary shareholders.
• Deep reserves from past profit. Retained reserves of about 306 crore taka dwarf the paid-up capital of about 47 crore taka — years of profit kept back and reinvested in the business.
• Rising asset backing. The asset value behind each share grew to about 75.5 taka in 2025 from about 67 taka in 2021.

• Profit is not reliably turning into cash. The cash the core business generates lurched from about 60 crore taka (2021) to just 1 crore (2023) to about 3 crore (2025) — even though 2025 was the most profitable year. The company blames slower collections; this gap is the biggest thing to watch.
• Debt has more than doubled. Total borrowings rose from about 155 crore taka in 2021 to about 364 crore in 2025, lifting the debt-to-own-money ratio from 0.52 to 1.02 — the company now owes a little more than its own money, and interest costs rise with it.
• Only middling returns on owners' money. Its roughly one-tenth return on shareholders' money trails the sector's multinationals (Marico, Reckitt) and even Square Pharmaceuticals by a wide margin.
• A thin public float. Only about 11% of the shares are held by the general public; with sponsors and institutions holding the rest, the freely traded portion is small, which can make the price jumpy.

ACI Formulations suits a patient, long-term investor who values a track record over excitement. You get a company with five straight years of profit, growing earnings, an unbroken yearly cash dividend, and a sponsor who owns two-thirds of it. For someone building a portfolio of steady, dividend-paying Bangladeshi companies, it has an understandable and consistent story.

It is less suited to someone chasing the highest possible return on capital, or wanting a large, easily traded float — its returns on owners' money are ordinary next to the sector's multinationals, and only about a tenth of the shares trade freely.

The single most important caveat is the gap between reported profit and actual cash: keep an eye on whether the company starts collecting its sales more promptly, and on its steadily rising debt. Everything price-related — whether today's price is cheap, fair or expensive, and the current dividend yield — is shown live beside this report and is deliberately left out of this durable write-up.