KATHMANDU, June 30: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has finally got a new chairperson after the position remained vacant for more than two months, leading to uncertainty among stock market investors.
The newly-appointed SEBON Chairperson Gopal Prasad Bhatta assumed his office on Tuesday, a day after Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle administered him the oath of office and secrecy.
The post had remained vacant since April 17 following the resignation of former SEBON Chairperson Santosh Narayan Shrestha after the Balen-Shah led government instructed politically-appointed individuals to step down.
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The prolonged delay in appointing a new SEBON chief had stalled the approval process for initial public offerings (IPOs) worth more than Rs 69 billion. The pending applications include a significant number of hydropower companies.
According to SEBON data, 104 companies are currently awaiting IPO approval, including 34 hydropower companies. These hydropower firms are seeking approval to issue a total of 171,483,736 units of shares worth over Rs 17.5 billion.
Likewise, 18 companies in the hotel and tourism sector have been waiting to issue 58,213,930 units of their IPOs worth more than 6.45 billion. Similarly, 21,400,375 units worth Rs 3.41 billion of five investment companies are in the pipeline for approval.
A total of 30 companies in the manufacturing sector have been waiting to float 166,425,053 units of shares worth Rs 35.35 billion. In addition, three micro insurance companies have been looking for SEBON’s approval to issue 6,750,000 units of IPOs worth Rs 675 million.
Similarly, 14 companies from the ‘other’ group have been looking forward to issue 48,621,069 units of shares worth over 5.90 billion.
The appointment of the new chairperson is expected to accelerate the IPO approval process and provide momentum to Nepal's share market.
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