NHPC crisis deepens; Growmore rubbishes claims about RTS agreement

ShareSansar, March 11:

It’s been more than four years the shareholders have no respite from the troubled National Hydropower Company Limited.

The company whose shares traded at as high as Rs 600 when stock market was surging to an unprecedented level around eight years back soon went on a free fall when company ran into rough weather due to extremely poor and non-transparent corporate governance.

To further complicate the problem, two groups of promoters – each led by notorious NB Group and Nirmal Pradhan — have been staking claim over the company over the recent years.

And, due to the row between the two groups, NHPC has not been able to renew the agreement with its RTS, Grow More Merchant Bank since Mangshir.

On the other hand, both the groups are still trying to fool the share investors by asking them to transfer the ownership of the shares traded in the past claiming that they have renewed the agreement with the RTS.

But Grow More officials have just told ShareSansar that they have not renewed the RTS agreement with the NHPC.

“The agreement has not been renewed ever since it expired in Mangshir irrespective of the rumors in the market,” said a highly placed source with the RTS. “We cannot strike a deal with the company until the rival groups come together with a common company.”

The group led by Prakash Rajaure, which is believed to be close to Nirmal Pradhan and the other group led by Yogendra Rai, which is said to be close to the NB Group, have just issued separate notices, asking the investors to transfer the ownership of NHPC scrips traded up to February 17 by March 21.

It may be noted here that the scrip had breached the par after a hiatus of four years in February as the investors hoped that the crisis might be over soon following the rumor of the renewal about the renewal of the contract with the RTS.

However, stakeholders, including the brokers, who have been closely following the developments, take this step by the rival groups as a ploy to further complicate the problem.

Though the regulator has not been able to take a bold stance on the festering issue and Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) has even withdrawn the trading suspension of NHPC shares since June following the Patan Appellate Court’s directive, the brokers have not been trading the shares.

“It’s not that we are opposed to trading NHPC shares, but who will guarantee that the ownership of the traded scrips will be transferred in absence of the RTS?” President of Brokers’ Association Narendra Sijapati told ShareSansar. “We are ready to trade the shares if the investors are ready to sign an auxiliary agreement with us that they are ready to face the eventualities in absence of the RTS.”

“See the problem is that the promoters really don’t care for hundreds of retail investors who have already suffered much due to their ill motives. They are still trying to dupe the investors,” said a broker, insisting anonymity.

Meanwhile, both the groups refute such allegation, claiming that they have been moving the court to resolve the dispute at the earliest in the utmost interest of the investors.