NT not keen on listing shares

The last word on investing in stocks is that you buy them to make money. But until stocks are listed and trading starts, it's all useless.
Nepal Telecom (NT) has not yet applied to Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) for listing its shares. According to the Securities Registration and Issue Approval Guideline 2057, a company must apply for listing to the Nepse within 45 days of its share allotment. But the allotment of NT's shares has already crossed 45 days.
"If the company does not list its shares at Nepse within 45 days, it has to apply to Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) with a proper explanation and seek a 30-day extension," states the guideline. But NT has also not applied to Sebon asking for an extension.
"However, NT does not need to follow the guideline as it is not a 'normal' public issue. It has floated its shares under the divestment programme of the government," said a NT employee.Citizen Investment Trust (CIT), the issue manager of NT, allotted the Nepal Telecom (NT) shares on May 16. Except for a few applicants, whose forms lack necessary documents and signatures, all those who had applied got the shares.
"Nepse will take the decision whether to list or not within 30 days after it receives the application," said Rewat Bahadur Karki, general manager of Nepse, the sole secondary market where companies list and trade their shares.
NT has called the bid for its shares quoting Rs 600 minimum after adding Rs 500 premium to the face value of Rs 100 for each unit. Investors have quoted a maximum of Rs 2,550 to the lowest of Rs 600 for a share.
As part of the divestment and privatisation plan, the government has started selling NT's 10 per cent shares to the public through auction. It has already sold five per cent to NT's employees at a subsidized rate of Rs 90 per unit.
Meanwhile, Nepse delisted five more companies — Nepal Byapar Bikas Company (Koshi) Ltd, Nepal Rastriya Utpadakatwa & Arthik Bikas Kendra Ltd, Himgiri Textile Industries Ltd, Biratnagar Jute Mills Ltd and Morang Sugar Mills Ltd - worth millions yesterday.It already had, in two phases, delisted 38 - 26 in the first phase and 12 in second - companies worth billions. Now the total number of delisted companies has reached 43.
"However, they can automatically be listed in the Over the Counter (OTC) market and trade their shares," said Karki.
Most of the delisted companies have already closed down and nobody knows the whereabouts of these companies' representatives. Some of them have become promoters of recently opened financial institutions.
According to the Stock Exchange Regulation-2002, those companies that do not respond to Nepse within 15 days of its decision to delist them are automatically delisted.
After the Securities Board of Nepal's (Sebon) approval, Nepse has brought the OTC Market Regulation but it has seen no transaction till date.


The Regulation
KATHMANDU: According to Nepse, corporate bodies wishing to be members shall have to submit applications in the prescribed format within a specified deadline along with the certificate of incorporation, tax certificate, Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association and concerned Act, rules and regulations in the case of corporate body other than the company after the incorporation as well as the projected B/S and PL A/C for the next three years, last three years' audited financial statement, if the year of incorporation is less than three years, the B/S and A/C of investment in shares of subsidiary company or investment made in its parent company's share capital, details of share investment in any other company other than subsidiary, the name, address, number of shares subscribed and amount invested by shareholders having more than five per cent of the share capital.