CPN MAOIST PRESENTING 70-POINT MEMORANDUM TO GOVT. PRESSING DEMANDS Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: CPN Maoist is presenting Monday a 70-point memorandum to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai approved by a central committee meet of the UCPN splinter group. The party has threatened strike if demands aren’t met. Vice-chairman CP Gajurel of CPN Maoist is presenting thememoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandum to the premier at Singha Durbar. The memorandum are demands of a janaandolan, the CPN Maoist said. Nnnn USA SETS NEPAL A TARGET TO 146 RUNS UPDATE Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: USA has given Nepal a target of 146 runs in the ICC Group IV match final in Malaysia. The two;teams have already qualified for GroupIII league in Bermuda April. May 2013. nnnn OPPOSITION STUDENTS CONTINUE ANTI-GOVT. PROTESTS Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: In continuing protests against hike in prices of POL products, opposition students Monday staged protests in front of government campuses for two hours from nine in the morning. Sponsoring opposition parties are demanding resignation of the Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai government which has been in office for one year. nnnn NBL SHARES TO BE TRADED FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADE Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: After a decade long absence, the shares of the Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) are likely to make a return to the stock market, soon, Prithvi Man Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The NBL is making final preparation to enlist its shares on the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) after they were delisted due to the implementation of the financial sector reform programme in the the country’s oldest bank. Despite being listed on the Nepse, NBL shares will be, however, first traded in the over the counter (OTC) markets that trade in stocks directly between the sellers and buyers outside the regular secondary market. According to Nepse’s OTC bylaws, the de-listed shares should be traded on the OTC market. It will be the first such trading in the country should that materialise. “The trading of NBL shares will open the door for other companies to the OTC market,” said Shankar Man Singh, Nepse general manager. “The operation of the OTC market has been necessary to increase the liquidity in the capital market.” The NBL, preparing to issue rights share as per its recapitalisation plan, requires to first re-list its shares on the Nepse for the purpose. “We are making all preparation to conclude listing of our shares within mid-September,” said Maheswor Lal Shrestha, coordinator of the NBL management team. For this, the NBL has sought an approval for allocation of 5 percent of the government’s stake to the bank employees as per the capital plan. “We have already submitted our proposal to the government,” said Shrestha. “As soon as the Cabinet takes a decision in this regard, we will re-list our shares on Nepse.” According to him, the bank employees will hold their stake in the bank through the process of rights shares. “We have already raised money from 96 percent of our employees,” said Shrestha. The right shares will be issued on par value—Rs 100. The bank expects to raise Rs 3.62 billion, of which Rs 1.39 billion has already come from the government. The NBL is planning to issue rights shares within first week of October and allot shares within mid-December. The bank is currently planning to issue rights shares at 1:9.5 ratio (holders of each share will have to purchase 9.5 additional shares). However, the capital raised through rights issue will not convert the bank’s negative net worth into positive. The government, one of the bank’s major shareholders, currently has 40.49 percent stake in the country’s oldest bank while the public shareholders hold 49.94 percent stake. Other banks hold 4.92 percent and while financial institutions hold 3.42 percent stake. The NBL expects to raise an addition capital of Rs 2 billion through the sales of its fixed assets. All NBL shares will be ordinary Unlike other banks, all the shares of the Nepal Bank Limited will be traded as ordinary shares. “It is because all the shares were being traded as ordinary shares before delisting,” said Shankar Man Singh, general manager at Nepse. Usually, the price of promoter shares remains much lower than ordinary shares. nnnn NEPAL, KOREAN FIRMS JOIN HAND TO DEVELOP KATHMANDU, TERAU FAST TRACK Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: South Korean firm Samsung Engineering and Kalika Construction, a Nepali A class construction company, have joined forces to build the proposed Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track road. The joint venture is named Samsung Kalika Consortium. Ramesh Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.. It recently purchased the expression of interest (EoI) document to bid for the 76-km expressway which will be built as a public private partnership under the build-operate-transport modality. Samsung is the second Korean firm which has shown interest in investing in the product after Landmark Worldwide (LMW). “We have formed a consortium with Samsung to bid for the Fast Track road,” said Madhusudan KC, administrative manager of Kalika Construction. He added that the JV with a local company was necessary for international firms to get extra points in the EoI and request for proposal (RFP) evaluation. As per the criteria set in the EoI, consortiums or firms involving Nepali contractors as an equity partner will be given extra points of up to 10 in proportion to the equity share of the Nepali subject to a maximum 10 percent. The Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management will shortlist six potential firms during the EoI evaluation to issue the RFP. Along with the Samsung Kalika JV, a total of seven firms as of Sunday have procured EoI documents to invest in the Fast Track road linking the capital with the southern plains. The firms which have bought the documents are LMW, Indian firms Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen and Turbo (L&T) Infrastructure Development Projects, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Srei Infrastructure Finance and a domestic construction company Sonakshi Infrastructure Development. Officials of the Fast Track Project said that Srei and Sonakshi had bought bid documents last week. According to them, Sonakshi has said that it would invite an international partner. Srei is the fourth Indian firm to show an interest in the Fast Track project. It possesses expertise in financing infrastructure projects, equipment and development. The planned Fast Track road is estimated to cost over Rs 80 billion. The government called for fresh EoIs two months ago and encouraged international applicants to involved Nepali contractors with the aim of technology transfer, capacity building and reduction of foreign currency involvement. On Sunday, the ministry held a pre-bidding conference for potential bidders. According to the ministry, the meeting was attended by representatives, agents of international firms and Nepali contractors. Participants in the meeting had urged the government to increase the 15 percent equity support to at least 20 percent and arrange a field visit. nnnn