Merolagani - Nepal Stock Exchange News and Analysis: September 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011

meroLagani | Kist - Punjab National Bank in talks for major stake sale

Kist Bank Limited is planning to sale its 51% shares to Punjab National Bank of India to enter into a partnership with one of the leading banks in India. Punjab national bank has already invested 20% stake in Everest Bank in Nepal.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

meroLagani | Low inter bank rate to pull interest rates down

The current low inter bank rate could pull the interest rates down, according to the central bank.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

meroLagani | NT refuses to pay license renewal fee

KATHMANDU, Sept 14: While the private operators, including Ncell, were waiting for Nepal Telecom´s response on outstanding dues, the state-owned operator on Wednesday said it will not pay license renewal fee worth Rs 20 billion.

Responding to queries of lawmakers of a sub-committee under the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Vishwanath Goel, managing director of NT, said the amount was too high to pay in every five years.

“Operators eying to sale their operating license can sustain, but those that intend to continue their service will find it difficult to sustain with such high renewal fee,” Goel added.

Ncell officials on Monday had expressed commitment to pay license renewal fee worth Rs 20 billion, if NT is willing to clear its outstanding fee.

As per the pre-condition of operating license, NT must pay Rs 210 million as license fee and Rs 20 million as renewal fee every five years. It, however, paid only 10 percent of licensing fee while renewing license about two years ago.

Goel also requested the government to treat all operators equally. “If we are to follow Public Procurement Act while purchasing products or services, other operators must follow it,” he said, adding that the government´s formalities were hindering NT´s growth.

Officials of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) - a rural telecom operator -- also said that they were not in a position to clear their outstanding dues. Mani Chaulagain, CEO of NST, said that were facing loss of Rs 30 million every month. “Despite being a rural telecom operator, we haven´t received any incentives from the government,” Chaulagain said.

Source: www.myrepublica

meroLagani | NRB seeks clarifications from six banks

KATHMANDU, Sept 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on Wednesday sought clarifications from six commercial banks through which eight firms in Birgunj managed to siphon out Rs 1 billion worth of Indian Currency (IC) by producing fake customs documents.

The central bank has asked the six banks to furnish details that led them to pay such a huge amount of IC to them. NRB sough clarification from Birgunj-based branches of NIC Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Laxmi Bank, Everest Bank and Siddartha Bank after a three-member team led by NRB Deputy Director Chet Prasad Upreti initiated investigation into the cases.

The central bank had deputed the team mainly to dig out facts and complexity surrounding the case, mainly to know if banks staffs and customs officials were involved in the wrongdoing.

“We have distributed questionnaires to all six banks, seeking details on their IC transactions over a year´s span,” said the source.

The banks´ response will determine whether or not they flouting existing rules and regulations while dealing with their customers.

The NRB team will also verify the customs declaration forms and demand drafts with banks statements to confirm whether or not the traders had misappropriated IC.
Another team from Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) has also been investigating the documents at Birgunj Customs Office to check possible involvement of customs officials in the cases.

The High-Level Financial Sector Coordination Committee had also recommended to the government on Monday to form a high-level panel to be led by a deputy governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to look into the reported IC misappropriation in the name of imports.

DRI´s initial investigation shows that the eight firms have misappropriated around Rs 770 million worth of IC by producing demand drafts and customs declaration forms at over half a dozen banks in Birgunj.

Those firms withdrew Rs 630 million from NIC Bank, Rs 11.8 million from Everest Bank, Rs 32.3 million from Laxmi Bank, Rs 7.7 million from Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Rs 60.4 million from Siddhartha Bank and Rs 16.4 million from Nepal Investment Bank. Those firms are also found to have opened accounts with Sunrise Bank, Nabil Bank, Global Bank and Bank of Kathmandu.

An investigation carried out by the DRI had found Maxwell Computer, Shyam Galla Bhandar, Jaya Mata Di International, Digital World and GS Traders of producing fake customs documents to withdraw the huge amount of IC from different commercial banks. Five proprietors of those firms have been taken into custody.

In another cases of suspected IC misappropriation, DRI has sealed Nitesh Brothers, Jaibaba Amar Nath and Gangotri Gallaghar in Birgunj and put Dinesh Gupta, proprietor of those firms, behind the bars.

Source: myrepublica

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

meroLagani | Standard Chartered declares Dividend for 2010/11

Standard Chartered Bank in the 281th meeting of the Board of Directors held on 12th September 2011 has approved financial statements of the fiscal year 2067/2068.

The Board, subject to the approval from the Nepal Rastra Bank and General Meeting of shareholders , has proposed a cash dividend of 50% (at the rate of NPR 50 per share) for the Fiscal Year 2067/2068.

Source: Nepalstock.com

Monday, September 12, 2011

meroLagani | PM to fly economy class to NY

Sunday, September 11, 2011

meroLagani | New stockbrokers mark a happy beginning

With the entry of 16 new stockbrokers, transactions in the stock market have surged.

With a significant contribution from the new brokers, the transaction volume surged by 81.38 percent to Rs 150.89 million last week from Rs 83.19 million in the previous week, when the new agents started trading.

Monday, September 5, 2011

meroLagani | BoP situation getting comfortable

KATHMANDU, SEP 06 -

After about two years of continued deficit in balance of payment (BoP), the country is on its way to achieving a better BoP situation, thanks to deceleration in deficit growth of current account (sum of the balance of trade of good and services, foreign aid, and remittance).

The country’s BoP, which recorded a surplus for the first time in two years in the eleventh month of the last fiscal year, continued the trend in the twelfth month too with a surplus of Rs 2.93 billion. Nepal had witnessed a BoP surplus of Rs 249.1 million as of the eleventh month of the last fiscal year, according to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

The figure is better than what the central bank had expected—a surplus of Rs 1 billion. The monetary policy for the last fiscal year had sought to attain a BoP surplus of Rs 7 billion, though.

The annual report of the country’s macro-economic situation prepared by the central bank stated that the BoP situation improved as the current account deficit shrank to Rs 11.91 billion from Rs 28.14 billion in the previous year. Growth in trade deficit also decelerated with export growing by 6.1 percent and import by just 5.5 percent.

The net transfer account (grant, pension, remittance and duty refund), which plays a significant role in the BoP figure, registered a growth of 8.9 percent to Rs. 307.86 billion compared to the previous year. The BoP had recorded a deficit of Rs 14.79 billion as of the ninth month.

“The country could have witnessed even better BoP situation had the last year’s budget been presented on time and the capital budget spent on time,” said a senior NRB official. “Transfer of foreign aid could not take place as expected due to low expenditure.”

According to NRB, foreign grants in cash increased by 3.9 percent to Rs 26.21 billion last year compared to Rs 25.23 billion a year ago. Likewise, the loan inflow stood at Rs 13.70 billion, double of that in the previous year.

Meanwhile, inflation remained at 9.6 percent which is exactly the same rate the country witnessed previous year. Despite high rise food prices, small rise in non-food items prices kept the figure under 10 percent.

Food and beverages items saw a price rise of 14.7 percent non-food item prices rose by 5.4 percent.

Source: ekantipur

meroLagani | Laxmi Bank's Cash Dividend

Sunday, September 4, 2011

meroLagani | Lumbini Bank declares dividend for the first time in 10 years

After 5 years of continous improvement in the profitability and capital adequacy, Lumbini Bank is finally proposed to distribute a dividend of 10% bonus shares and 0.53% cash dividend to its shareholders.

The shareholders have waited for the last 10 years for such dividends which was not possible because of the accumulated losses of the company due to mismanagement which prompted the central bank to take over its management in 2002.

The bank has come a long way to improve it's Non Performing loans from 40.54% to mere 0.96% which is better than many of the other peer companies. The bank has a paid up capital of Rs.130 crores with a capital adequacy ratio of 24.49% at the end of year 2010/11.

The bank made a profit of Rs. 38.96 crores.

Friday, September 2, 2011

meroLagani | Latest circular from NRB about deposits Discussions

meroLagani | ABB and SFCL sign MoU for merger

Annapurna Bikash Bank (ABB) and Suryadarshan Finance Company (SFC) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for merger.

ABB is a Kavre-based development bank with paid-up capital of Rs 672, which is well above the stipulated capital requirement. SFC, Kathmandu-based finance company, has paid-up capital of Rs 100 million, which is half of the stipulate capital requirement. Director of ABB Balkrishna Neupane and chairman of SFCL Dan Bahadur Tamang signed the agreement.

Officials said ABB that has a strong capital base chose to undergo merger with SFC mainly to expand its transaction area and formalize its major loan portfolio outside its working area.

The two institutions signed the MoU after the central bank gave its nod for the merger. “We are glad they signed merger MoU,” said a Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) official, adding that Butwal Finance and Alpic Everest Finance too have sought NRB´s suggestion to undergo merger.

“Officials of both the institutions recently met with NRB high officials and have received positive response from them,” the source said. The paid-up capital of Butwal Finance stands at Rs 206.78 million as of third quarter of last fiscal year whereas the paid-up capital of Alpic Everest is just Rs 140.64 till second quarter of last fiscal year.

“The trend for merger is still encouraging and we are hopeful it will increase further in the upcoming months because of tax incentives offered by the government,” the official said. The source further said that although the numbers of weak FIs were showing interest in merger, central bank was not positive about it.

“Two weak institutions will make another big institution and this is not what central bank intends,” the official added.

Although Naryani Development Bank and Crystal Finance were planning to merge, they have stopped the process after they failed to get a green signal from the central bank.

On the other hand, Kasthamandap Development Bank and Shikar Finance are very close to a merger. The source said that they have completed the formalities.
NRB has strongly been pushing BFIs to undergo merger. It even unveiled merger bylaws early in May, 2011.

The government too has provided tax incentives to encourage merger.