National Hydropower AGM in limbo

KATHMANDU, AUG 24: 

The regulators’ leniency has once again allowed National Hydropower Company to postpone its annual general meeting and it is unlikely to hold it at another determined date.

The company was directed by the regulators to hold its 14th and 15th annual general meetings by August 21, but it requested to postpone it to August 28, but that too seems improbable as the company has yet again failed to publish a notice to inform shareholders seven days prior to the scheduled date of the annual general meetings.

A meeting held between District Administration Office, Company Registrar’s Office, and Securities Board of Nepal had decided to order National Hydropower Company to hold its 14th and 15th AGMs within August 21.

Even though the company once again disregarded the directive, the regulators are still unable to take any action against the company’s board. “The company’s chairman Pradip Man Vaidya had assured the regulators to hold annual general meetings by August 28, but it is evident that the AGMs will not be taking place on the scheduled date as the company has failed to announce it formally,” said a public director at National Hydropower Company Deepak Karki.

Its annual general meeting, held on July 1 after much struggle on the part of investors, had remained inconclusive following a disagreement regarding the validity of the proxies. 

The company has not held an annual general meeting since the last three years and investors have been pushing it to conduct one soon. 

The promoter of the hydropower company –– NB Group –– has been blamed by investors for disrupting the annual general meeting in fear that investors will oust them from the company’s board due to large scale fund misappropriation. National Hydropower Company has 13,863,462 unit shares listed at Nepal Stock Exchange with about 10 million units owned by about 6,000 minority shareholders, who have been duped due to the regulator’s inefficiency and weakness.

Of the four listed hydropower companies at the Nepse, only National Hydropower has been duping investors, as others are paying good returns.

Source: THT