Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has started a special system for block trading from November 15. Trading of more than one per cent of the listed shares of a company is defined as ‘block trading’, according to NEPSE. For such trading, NEPSE has introduced a separate window in its automated trading system. The first deal recorded in NEPSE under the new system was the sale of 1,020,144 units of shares in Hotel Soaltee Limited by India’s hospitality industry major Oberoi Hotels to Nepal’s investment company Shivcream Land and Industries Company.
With this Oberoi has made final exit from Soaltee. With the new system, buyers and sellers of large quantity of shares of a company can negotiate the price outside the NEPSE and bring the deal to NEPSE for record purpose. Thus the parties to such deals can now pay the commission on the basis of the actual deal value. Earlier, as the deals were recorded by NEPSE on the current market price, the parties were forced to pay a high commission.
NEPSE hopes, this new system will make it easier for the large shareholders, such as foreign direct investors to exit from a company. According to Nepse, the Soaltee deal was signed between the parties on September 14 and the price agreed was Rs. 140 per share. The Face value of Soaltee’s shares is Rs. 10 per unit. The latest trading price of Soaltee’s shares before November 15 was Rs. 186. With the exit of Oberoi, Soaltee now has Holiday Inn International as the only foreign shareholder.
