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The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has initiated preparations to raise more than Rs 60bn from the market by launching an Initial Public Offering (IPO). 

The utility plans to restructure its authorized capital at Rs 300bn and issue 20 percent of its shares at a premium price of Rs 300 per share (face value Rs 100). It plans to use the funds to make equity investments in major hydropower projects, including Dudhkoshi, Upper Arun, Arun-4, Budhi Gandaki and Chainpur Seti, among others, with a combined capacity of approximately 3,000 MW. Additionally, the funds will be allocated to develop critical transmission infrastructure, such as 400 kV double-circuit transmission lines and substations across the country. The planned 400 kV transmission lines and substations are crucial for the NEA to reduce technical losses, improve grid stability and support the integration of new hydropower projects into the national grid. 

NEA has said it needs to make an investment of Rs 534bn (approx) by 2030 to improve its existing transmission infrastructure.

It submitted the IPO proposal to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation two months ago. However, NEA officials say the ministry has not forwarded the proposal to the Finance Ministry for approval. Without the finance ministry’s nod, the proposal cannot be presented to the cabinet for a decision.

Earlier, the NEA’s proposal to issue shares to the general public reached the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal without obtaining the consent of the finance ministry. Although the cabinet decided to allow the NEA to issue shares by revising related laws, the government changed before the legal reforms could be implemented. After the new government was formed under KP Sharma Oli, the finance ministry pointed out that the Cabinet had made a decision regarding the amendment of laws for share issuance provisions without its consent. Consequently, the finance ministry requested that the proposal be restarted from the beginning.

NEA officials say that the planned IPO complies with the Securities Registration and Issue Regulation, 2016, which permits public share issuance at a premium rate if the entity has been profitable for three consecutive years, has a net worth higher than its paid-up capital and the share price determination method is endorsed by outside experts in their evaluation report. The NEA meets all these criteria and hsa received AA+ rating for three consecutive years.

The utility has AA+ credit rating for three consecutive years. The rating reflects NEA’s strong financial position with annual revenues exceeding Rs 116bn and assets valued at over Rs 700bn. The rating indicates a low risk of default and high confidence in the NEA’s ability to meet its financial obligations.

While the NEA had a net loss of Rs 8.89bn in 2015-16, it surprised many by earning a net profit of Rs 1.5bn in 2016-17. It posted a profit of Rs 14.46bn in 2023-24. The utility, which had an accumulated loss of Rs 34.61bn in 2015-16, now has an accumulated profit of Rs 47.41bn.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 700 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 169, 400 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 168, 700 per tola on Monday.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 970 per tola today.

Regular import of petroleum products via pipelines from India's Motihari to Amlekhgunj in Bara has started.

Nepal Oil Corporation's Madhes Regional Office Amlekhgunj has said that the import of petroleum products, including petrol and kerosene, has started from the pipelines after the completion of the work of the Intra-national Petroleum Pipeline Expansion.

Pralayankar Acharya, Chief of Nepal Oil Corporation Madhes Province Office, Amlekhgunj, informed that the entire work of petroleum pipeline expansion has been completed and the regular import of petroleum products from the pipelines has been started for a few days.

"However, petrol and kerosene have already been imported from the pipelines," Chief Acharya said, "Now, we have started formally distributing the imported petrol from the pipelines to the depots in major cities in the country."

Under the pipeline expansion project, two petrol tanks with a capacity of 4,100 kiloliters, two transmix tanks with a capacity of 250 kiloliters, 24 fully automatic loading way-refillers for transporting petrol, pump house and laboratory have been constructed at the Indian Oil Corporation's depot in Amlekhgunj.

Under the same project, the upgrade of the 'Fire Fighting System', the 'OWS System' for water and oil separation and the PMCC Cell have also been constructed.

Likhita Infrastructure was contracted to complete the construction of the entire infrastructure by 2023. Chief Acharya said that the work of expanding the pipelines was completed only a few days ago for various reasons.

Similarly, Indian Oil Corporation has constructed two transmix tanks to store mixed fuel which can be both petrol and diesel and a firewater tank with a capacity of 3000 kilolitres for protection inside the depot.

With the completion of this project, the storage capacity of diesel at Amlekhgunj depot will be 24,840 kiloliters and the storage capacity of petrol will be 16,630 kiloliters.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 29.87 points to close at 2,727.91 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 6.28 points to close at 459. 70 points.

A total of 18,081,168-unit shares of 302 companies were traded for Rs 10. 04 billion.

Meanwhile, Wean Nepal Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (WNLB), Gurans Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (GLBSL), Kutheli Bukhari Small Hydropower Limited (KBSH), Excel Development Bank Ltd. (EDBL) and Guardian Micro Life Insurance Limited (GMLI) were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 10. 00 percent.

Likewise, Saptakoshi Development Bank Ltd (SAPDBL) was the top loser as its price fell by 10.00 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 4. 52 trillion.