Kathmandu, January 23:

The much-awaited and most controversial mega issue of 7.5 million units — in the first phase — of Nepal Telecom’s (NT) shares received a lukewarm response today on the opening day due to nationwide protests against petroleum products’ price hike.

The government is planning to raise Rs 9 billion by selling NT’s share — held by the finance ministry — through auction. The price per unit share is quoted

at Rs 600 minimum — Rs 100 face value adding Rs 500 premium. People can apply within 35 days from today and depending upon demand, the 7.5 million shares will also be floated to public in the second phase making it to a total of 10 per cent.

However, NT has alloted five per cent shares to its employees at the subsidised rate of Rs 90 per unit, which drew a lots of criticism. “But we cannot sell our shares within three years,” one senior staff of the NT said.

After three years lock-in period also, they can sell only 25 per cent of the shares and the remaining shares could be sold only after their retirement.

However, NT is alloting shares to its retired employees also. “In that case, we don’t know what will happen after the lock-in period,” he said.

Earlier, the issue manager Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) has fixed some of the NT branches as collection centres outside the valley.

But CIT has cancelled that today. “We are talking to Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) as an alternative out side the valley,” said Anil Dhakal, head, merchant banking department of CIT.