SEBON gives final verdict on NBL FPO issue; NBL to accept the verdict and act accordingly

Securities Exchange Board of Nepal has announced its final verdict regarding Nepal Bank Limited FPO issue. As per the sources, after detailed discussion of the issue, SEBON has directed the underwriters of the issue to obtain the shares first and then transfer it to a third party after listing.

Recently, Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) and all the underwriters had formally requested SEBON to rethink this matter after which the board sat for detailed discussion and reached the said verdict. SEBON states that since there is no law that allows the transfer of shared to a third party directly, the underwriters are directed to acquire the shares first.

As per the CEO of Nepal Bank Mr. Devendra Pratap Shah, the bank will undertake the process of allotment as per the directions of the board as soon as possible.

NBL had issued the FPO on 15^th Asadh, under the management of Siddhartha Capital Limited, for a sum of Rs.280 per share. After the issue went undersubscribed in the first and the second phase, it was open for the employees of the organization. Even then the issue was undersubscribed. Therefore, as per the terms of the issue, the eight underwriters of the issue had to obtain the unsubscribed amount of shares. These eight underwriters were Global IME Capital, NIBL Ace Capital, Civil Capital, CBIL Capital, Sunrise Capital, Laxmi Capital, Sanima Capital and Nepal SBI Merchant Bank.

Since there was a conflict of interest between SEBON and the underwriters and NBL, shares that were issued on Asadh haven’t been listed yet.