Recently we have observed that many companies in Bangladesh including a lot of Banks have added PLC after their name. Consequently, Walton Hi-Tech Industries is now "Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC", similarly "The City Bank Limited" to "The City Bank PLC". Many of us might be curious to learn the rationality for the change and the specifics of PLC.

PLC stands for Public Limited Company. According to the Company Act of Bangladesh, there are three types of Companies- Public Limited Company (PLC), Private Limited Company, and One Person Company (OPC). According to Company Act 1994, it was not mandatory to have a PLC suffix, but a Sub Sec 11(A) as an Indication of Limited Company was added to the Company Act 1994 in 2000. This section mandates that PLC be added after the name of a Public Limited Company, One Person Company will add OPC, and a Private Limited Company will identify as Limited or Ltd.

In a similar vein, Public Limited Companies—which are designated as "p.l.c." under the UK's Company Act 2006—are the equivalent of publicly traded US companies that use the Inc. or corporation designation.

In order to comply with this statute of Bangladesh Company Act, numerous public limited companies have announced changing their names to include PLC in recent months.