April 23: A private company has applied for the license of a new stock exchange platform. The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) had called for applications for one new stock exchange company and two commodity exchanges on April 13. The Himalayan Stock Exchange Company has applied for the license of the new stock exchange on April 21 within ten days after the regulatory body called for applications. 

Tej Prasad Devkota, information officer of the board, informed New Business Age that only one application for stock exchange has been received as of Friday. According to him, no application has been received for commodity exchange by April 21.

According to the notice issued by the board for applying for the license of a new stock exchange company and commodity exchange, April 23 is the last day for submission. 

SEBON has set a paid-up capital requirement of Rs 3 billion for the new stock exchange platform. Likewise, the board has also directed that 70 per cent of the ownership of the new stock exchange facility will be of the founders, and 30 per cent by the general public. The investors of Himalayan Reinsurance Company have invested in the Himalayan Stock Exchange.

The company is a joint venture of the Shankar Group, Deepak Bhatt Group, and former presidents of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry  Bhawani Rana, Shekhar Golchha, Pashupati Murarka.

Similarly, Shatish Moore, former president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industry and head of Lucky Group, Saurabh Jyoti of Jyoti Group and Ashish Shrestha, the official distributor of Mitsubishi vehicles in Nepal, Rohit Gupta, the owner of Shivam Cement and the official distributor of Xiomi Mobile for Nepal, Shashikant Agarwal, the owner of Marriott Hotel, etc. have invested in the company.

SEBON has started the new license distribution process that was postponed since November 1.

Earlier, SEBON had requested applications for a new stock exchange, commodity exchange and broker license on September 16. But two petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against the new license distribution process and the board suspended the new license distribution process on November 1.

The Supreme Court scrapped both the writ petitions, one on December 28 and the other on April 9, paving the way for the board to resume the license distribution process.

For the new broker license, the board has received 46 applications. The board has received the applications of 46 companies, including 45 new companies and one old company for the broker license. According to the board, the applications received for the broker's license have been reviewed. After completing all the procedures, the board will make preparation to grant broker licenses to all the companies.Based on the capital structure, the board will distribute the broker licenses under three different categories. A minimum of Rs 200 million to a maximum of Rs 1.5 billion million has been set for the new license.

The capital structure prescribed by the board for the first-level broker is Rs 200 million with limited scope for buying and selling shares, working as a DP, providing investment consulting services and managing investments. The paid-up capital of the second-tier broker with the full range of margin trading services is Rs 600 million, and Rs 1.5 billion for third-tier stock dealers.