The government had announced in its budget a plan to issue 5 percent additional shares to the public. “We are not in a position to float fresh shares to the public as the share price is plunging significantly. We are waiting for the price to go up,” said Bimal Wagle, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance.
The NT share price declined to Rs 595 per share on Tuesday, from the highest price of Rs 1,400 at the time of issue last year. Nandan Hari Sharma, chief executive of Citizen Investment Trust, said the government has not sent any directive to issue additional shares to the public.
Last year, the government had floated 8.6 percent NT shares to the general public in the largest ever Initial Public Offering (IPO), at a premium minimum price of Rs 600. At the same time, it also issued equity participation to its own employee at a discount price of Rs 90 per share.
The government had targeted a float of 7.5 million share units. Of the total 7.5 million shares targeted for sale to the public, only 5.2 million units worth Rs 3.62 billion were bought up.
However, all 7.5 million shares worth Rs 880 million (including 10 percent tax) set aside for NT employees were sold out at the time of issue.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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