E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, NOV 12 -

Five companies, including foreign ones, have shown interest to purchase shares owned by Yogendra Prasad Shrestha, the former executive chairman of Nepal Share Market Finance Limited (NSMFL), in Himal Hydro Pvt Ltd.

Shrestha is currently in police custody for his alleged involvement in the embezzlement of Rs 2.66 billion in NSMFL.

Two companies from Nepal and one each from India, Singapore and Malaysia are negotiating with the NSM to purchase Shrestha’s stake in Himal Hydro. Shrestha and his family have 1,283,815 units of shares in Himal Hydro. A negotiating team of the NSM led by its chairman Arjun Kumar Shrestha is considering selling the stake to the company that offers over Rs 550 million. As Shrestha’s Himal Hydro shares have been put up as collateral at Star Saving Company, NSMFL initiated the share selling process after Star’s nod.

NSMFL Chairman Arjun Kumar said they are preparing to conclude the negotiations and sign a memorandum of understanding within next week. “We will then seek the central bank’s approval,” he said.

The NSMFL will seek quotations from interested parties for the shares. “If Yogendra Prasad’s family accepts the proposal of a particular company before going for the quotation process, there will not be a need to go for the quotation,” said chairman Shrestha.

A son of the former executive chairman is also involved in the negotiation process. However, the NSM plans to get at least Rs 375.5 million from the sale of the shares.

According to Shrestha, everyone will not be eligible to purchase the shares as they will also consider the experience of the company in the field of hydropower and related sector before choosing the right candidates. According to chairman Shrestha, the NSM is also planning to auction off Star Mall owned by former executive chairman Shrestha.

“We are holding discussions with parties that can pay more than Rs 1 billion for the business complex,” Shrestha said. The NSM has valued the mall at Rs 1.3 billion. As Global Bank and Siddhartha Bank have kept the Star Mall under their hold, the NSM is going to sell the business complex in coordination with these two banks and the central bank.

Although Yogendra Shrestha embezzled the biggest ever amount in the financial history of the country, current NSM officials say that the amount can be recovered. Apart from these two major property owned by the Shrestha family, they have shares in Machhapuchhre Bank and in Neco Insurance.

“We can recover the amount as the Shrestha family has huge property to pay for that,” said Nandan Hari Sharma, the chief executive officer of NSM. The NSM has been receiving loan repayments and slowly paying back deposits of the general public.

It has already cleared accounts of around 13,000 depositors by keeping their minimum balance at the NSM so that the customer base would not be lost. “There are still 2,000 big depositors who are being paid back their cash in installments,” Sharma said.

Posted on: 2011-11-12 11:00

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