Kathmandu, December 7

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) — the central monetary and regulatory authority — has decided to offload its stake from Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) — the sole secondary market of the country. The central bank currently has 34.6 per cent stake in Nepse.

As per a letter sent by NRB to Nepse a month back, the local bourse has started the process to offload NRB’s shares through the auction model. “Nepse will table this proposal in the next meeting of the board of directors of Nepse and the board will be responsible for taking further decision on the proposal,” said Chandra Singh Saud, general manager of Nepse.

Nepse will then only begin offloading NRB’s shares as per the decision made by the board. “Once the board takes a decision it will take a short time to complete the auction process,” Saud informed.

The Financial Management Department of NRB had sent the letter to Nepse to start the process of offloading its stake from the capital market operator. “We have not yet received any response from Nepse regarding this issue,” said Rajendra Pandit, deputy spokesperson for NRB. “Nepse is solely responsible for completing the process.”

The government has planned to appoint a strategic partner at Nepse to further develop the capital market. As per plans of the Ministry of Finance, after NRB’s shares are offloaded by Nepse, the government will begin the process to appoint a strategic partner at Nepse.

The central bank had initially announced it would offload its stake from Nepse five years ago but the plan was mentioned in the Monetary Policy only in the current fiscal year. “The plan to offload NRB’s shares in Nepse was announced a long time ago. I think the process will be completed shortly,” Pandit said.

Along with NRB, the government holds 58.66 per cent stake in Nepse. Similarly NIDC Development Bank holds 6.12 per cent and brokerage firms hold 0.62 per cent stake at Nepse.

The central bank has planned to offload its stake from Rastriya Beema Sansthan (government owned life

insurance firm), Rural Microfinance Development Centre (RMDC) and Nepal Grameen Bikas Bank too.

NRB holds 65.2 per cent stake in Agricultural Project Service Centre, 55.56 per cent in Rastriya Beema Sansthan, 10 per cent in the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund, 3.05 per cent in Nepal Grameen Bikas Bank and 4.05 per cent in RMDC.