Kathmandu, January 1

Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has directed hydropower companies to publish a public notice disclosing their net worth and per share income before issuing initial public offering (IPO).

Issuing a guideline for hydropower companies that are planning to issue shares to public, SEBON has directed the companies to publish their net worth according to their latest audit report.

SEBON has also directed such companies to disclose some relevant information like per megawatt production cost, assumption of time to complete the project and the payback period. Similarly, the grade provided by the credit rating agency should also be published in the notice.

“SEBON hopes that the public issuing process will be more transparent and organised after this guideline. Such disclosures will also protect the rights of investors and they would have the basic information of the company in which they are investing,” NirajGiri, spokesperson for SEBON, informed.

Hydropower firms listed in the secondary market would also have to submit their annual financial report to the SEBON. As per SEBON, earlier hydropower operators were not obliged to submit their annual report to the capital market regulator.

“Investors have registered their grievances at SEBON about lack of proper information in noticespublished by hydropower firms while issuing public offering. So, we have directed them to disclose basic information for the benefit of the investors,” Giri stated.

Hydropower companies should inform investors if they have received low grade from credit rating agency. Likewise, if the per share net worth of the firm is less than face value, that information should also be made public through the notice.

As per data maintained by SEBON, 15 hydropower companies are in pipeline to issue IPO and four others have been granted final approval from the regulator to issue the IPO.