The Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) has ordered National Hydropower Company to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) within a month.
Public shareholders of the hydropower company have sought the regulator’s support to pressurise the company to conduct its AGM which has not been held for the last three years. “Sebon has directed the company to hold its AGM for fiscal year 2009-10 within mid-April,” informed one of the directors of the company elected amongst public shareholders Prakash Rajoria.
Sebon has the authority to order any company to hold their AGM if it deems necessary. In this case too, the regulatory authority can ask the company to comply with the regulation by conducting the AGM itself if the executive board does not comply despite repeated orders and Sebon can also audit the company’s balance sheet.
The listed companies need to hold their AGM within five months of the end of a fiscal year. “The company has not held its AGM of the last three fiscal years which has left retail investors in the dark about the financial status of the company,” said Rajoria, who is general secretary of Nepal Stock Investors’ Association.
National had held its AGM for 2007-08 and 2008-09 in 2010 and had pledged six per cent cash dividend which was never realised. Its stocks have plummeted to Rs 45 from a peak of Rs 600.
