SEBON's IPO backlog has become a tax on Nepali capital
Companies wait years to learn whether they may raise money. A regulator that published a clock and its reasons would serve investors better than one that simply waits.
Every rupee a Nepali company raises from the public must first pass through the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON). In early October the regulator held 144 applications to sell shares and bonds, seeking about Rs 114bn, according to its own lists. Among them were 111 initial public offerings worth Rs 70.65bn. Fifty-two of those applications were filed before mid-April 2025, and 15 date from the Nepali year 2080, which ended in April 2024, the IPO list shows. On the other side of the ledger, SEBON's approved-IPO list for the current fiscal year, dated 6 October 2026, carried one name. Our tracker sets out the full queue.
A queue of that length is not caution. It is a cost, and companies pay it whether or not they are eventually approved. A hydropower developer that cannot raise equity borrows more, or builds more slowly. Several of the cement and steel makers in the queue have filed higher asking prices since February, according to SEBON's list and ShareSansar's earlier reporting. Investors pay too. Retail buyers who apply for IPOs through MeroShare win shares by lottery when an issue is oversubscribed, and a thin supply of new listings keeps those lotteries crowded.
A clock, and reasons
Some of the delay has an explanation. IPO approvals came to a halt while SEBON was without a chair after its chairman resigned on 17 April, Himal Press reported. Many of the remarks on the pipeline list refer to compliance reports and updates sent back and forth after the regulator's comments, the list shows. But those explanations are the argument for reform, not against it. A regulator should not stall because one post is vacant, and an application should not circle for years between an issuer and a reviewer without either side being held to a timetable.
SEBON should publish a deadline for each stage of review and report every month how many applications met it. When it sends a filing back, it should say why, in a form the public can read. When it refuses an issue, the reasons should be published too, so that the next applicant does not repeat the mistake. The regulator already notes on its lists that inclusion does not mean an applicant is eligible. Telling the market what does make an applicant eligible would be more useful.
Price is not the regulator's job
The queue is also where a quieter argument is being fought. Eight manufacturers want to sell shares at a premium, at prices from Rs 233 to Rs 426 against the usual face value of Rs 100, seeking about Rs 27.3bn, SEBON's pipeline shows. Power developers are resisting stricter IPO eligibility rules on which the regulator is consulting. These are legitimate questions. But SEBON's job is to make sure investors are told the truth, fully and in time. It is not to decide, by delay, which industries may raise money and at what price. A premium issue with honest disclosure should be judged by the investors who are asked to buy it.
A deeper, honest capital market needs a regulator that is strict about disclosure and quick about decisions. Nepal has the reverse: rules argued over for months and approvals that arrive, if at all, years after the application. SEBON's leadership could change that within one fiscal year by publishing its clock and keeping to it.
How this story was made: researched and written by The Standard’s desk with AI assistance, from the published reporting and official data credited below, and checked against those sources. Our standards.
The long view The Nepal Stock Exchange
