Kathmandu, May 28

Public listed companies have to maintain a gap of at least five years before issuing another further public offering (FPO). The Securities Issue and Distribution Guidelines, 2017, issued by the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has provisioned a gap of at least five years to issue another FPO.

The guidelines have been issued to execute the Securities Issue and Registration Regulation introduced a few months back, which also aims to encourage the real sector companies to be listed in the stock market.

The guidelines have also included a provision to lessen the period for the FPO to be listed in the stock market after the public issue. It has also provided a formula to fix the premium price of the securities and aims to encourage participation of small and medium investors in the primary market, as per SEBON.

Organising a press meet today, SEBON Chairman Rewat Bahadur Karki said that the securities market regulator is preparing to make ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount) mandatory while applying for initial public offering and FPO.

As per the prevailing rules, 40 per cent of the total securities need to be allotted to small investors. However, citing the rule has not been properly implemented in practice, the securities market regulator has urged the issue managers to allot at least 10 units to each applicant.