Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Nepse suspends over two dozen listed companies' trading

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) has suspended the trading in 25 listed companies including four development banks and four finance companies due to delay in annual payment of listing renewal fees.
"The listed companies are supposed to pay the annual renewal fee within the three months of a fiscal year's end," said Shankar Man Singh, general manager and chief executive officer of the Nepse. "But these companies failed to make the payment within the deadline that ended on October 17 —thus their trading has been suspended until they pay their dues," he added.
The suspended companies include development banks like Malika Bikas Bank and Kasthamandap Development Bank, and finance companies like Goodwill Finance, IME Financial Institution, and Prabhu Finance Company among others.
Despite the stocks of these companies doing well and being traded in great volume, they have acted in quite a careless manner regarding the payment of renewable fees. According to the Nepse, this has definitely affected the investors, who wanted to buy or sell their stocks of these companies.
Every year around this time, Nepse has to suspend the trading of about two dozen listed companies for the very reason as more than half of these suspended companies are plainly waiting till the last hour to pay the renewal fee.
However, some of these suspended companies also include the almost non-existent companies that are waiting to be de-listed by the Nepse like Raghupati Jute Mills and Shree Bhrikuti Pulp and Paper Ltd.
The listed companies have to pay annual renewal fees depending upon their capital structure. "The renewal fee depends on the capital structure of the company but the maximum renewal fee of any company comes to Rs 50,000," Singh said. "This year, most of the companies were not able to pay the renewable fee due to holidays also. Goodwill Finance and Nilgiri Bikas Bank paid the renewal fee before the end of trading hours today.

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