World Class Complex with 5-star hotel to be built at Thamel

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

A shopping complex, Chhaya Center, including a five-star hotel will be constructed in the tourist hub of Thamel with investment of Rs 3 billion by seven entrepreneurs. Construction of the Chhaya Center has been started with an aim of completing it within three years and it will include five-star hotel The Thamel Palace, shops, restaurants, cinema halls, food courts, banquet and other facilities.

“We are building the most modern hotel and a tourism complex with a concept of Thamel within Thamel,” Suman Pandey, one of the promoters of the center that is being constructed in 15 ropanis of land, said. “It will add a new dimension to the country’s tourism sector apart from being the feather on Thamel’s cap,” he claimed. Share investor Nirmal Pradhan, realtor Kalu Gurung, tourism entrepreneur Yogendra Shakya, Suman Pandey and Maheshwore Shrestha, and automobile and housing entrepreneur Suhrid Ghimire led by Chairman of Nepal Investment Bank Prithvi Bahadur Pandey have invested in the center. Suman Pandey and Shrestha will oversee its construction and management. Half a dozen banks led by Everest Bank have mobilized loans for the center that will be built in the area adjoining Bhagwanbahal.

Suman Pandey said there is every chance that the center will be completed before the scheduled three years. He said the main building of the center will be 15-story and include a two-story underground parking area that will accommodate around 450 vehicles at a time. There will be shops in the first floor, corporate offices of different groups and banks in the third floor, food court and multiplex in the fourth and fifth floor. He revealed that an understanding has already been reached with multi-national Sheraton Four Points for the five-star hotel that will be built in the top 10 floors. The hotel will have 200 rooms, and preparations are on to also include a casino and a discotheque.

There will be 250 shops, seven restaurants, three theaters, five conference halls, and a banquet hall that will seat 1,000 persons. He claimed that the center will give priority to established brands for shops and a branch of Nanglo has already been confirmed. He said the center that will open round the clock will have facilities targeting both the tourists and Nepali customers. “We will take special precautions to ensure that tourists are not cheated in the center,” he stated. “We will survey the market outside and will have only the shops of Asian standard,” he added. ConTech Pvt Ltd is building the center that has been designed by Nepali engineers on the basis of Nepali style of architecture.

Attraction of Thamel

Entrepreneurs wish to open big hotels in Thamel that does not have big and modern hotels despite being the main tourist center of Nepal. Australian millionaire of Nepali origin Shesh Ghale is also constructing five-star Hotel Kathmandu with an investment of Rs 2.50 billion. The hotel, to be constructed in Keshar Mahal, will be part of the chain of Sheraton Hotels. Domestic entrepreneur Shashikant Agrawal is also constructing three-star Marriott Kathmandu in Thamel at an estimated cost of Rs 800 million. It is expected to be completed within 22 months.

Entrepreneurs claim that tourism has developed in Thamel as Nepali tourism has traditionally been palace-centric. “Narayanhiti Palace is the epicenter of Nepali tourism. Tourism activities are centered in all four directions of the palace and more in Thamel that lies in the west,” tourism entrepreneur Shakya said. He added that since the new hotels are being constructed in Keshar Mahal area, it is being developed as New Thamel. He said this shows that investors now want to focus on New Thamel coming out of the narrow Thamel.

“The wish of many entrepreneurs that standard hotels should be constructed in Thamel as most of the tourists coming here have to travel far for accommodation will now be fulfilled,” Chairman of Asian Trekking and former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association Ang Tshering Sherpa said. “Thamel can provide full package to tourists after completion of these new hotels.”

Source:Karobar Daily, 17th June 2013
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Huge Response for Mega Bank's IPO-Oversubscribed 15 times

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Mega Bank´s initial public offering (IPO) is said to have been oversubscribed by around 15 times, making it one of the most successful public floatations in the recent history of Nepal.

The bank, which floated its shares on the primary market on Sunday, had raised Rs 6.33 billion till Tuesday evening, recording oversubscription of around 10 times. “We estimate the IPO to have been oversubscribed by 15 times as of Wednesday evening (the last day for public floatation), raising close to Rs 9.5 billion,” Mega Bank CEO Anil Keshary Shah told Republica. “But final results will come only tomorrow (Thursday).”

The bank had floated 6.99 million units of common stocks worth Rs 100 each. It had appointed Citizens Investment Trust, Nabil Investment Banking Limited, NMB Capital Limited and NIBL Capital Markets Limited as issue managers for the IPO.

The bank had established 133 collection centers in 40 districts from where people could file application to purchase shares of Mega.
Earlier, Mega had said the IPO would be a barometer to measure the trust and confidence of the public won by the bank since its establishment in July 2010.

“We are pleased to know that we have been able to win public´s confidence in a very short period of time,” Shah said.
He further added that share allotment process would complete within this fiscal year and extra funds raised through the IPO would be refunded within first two weeks of the start of the new fiscal year in mid-July.

Source: myrepublica, 6th of June 2013
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Commercial Banks in Nepal post Massive Profits in Q3 of FY 2069/70

NEPAL

Despite gloomy economic outlook, commercial banks have done exceedingly well during the third quarter of fiscal year 2069/70, recording a rise in profit of 42.26 percent over the same quarter last year. The double digit growth is well beyond investors’ expectations and has been attributed to aggressive lending strategy adopted by banks, especially, among smaller consumable loans section.

The increasing gap between the interest charged on loans and advances and interest paid to depositors have fuelled banks’ income.  The net spread rate of banks has increased in this quarter compared to the corresponding period a year back, underscoring the increasing gap between deposit and lending rates at banks.

The total Net Profit of the overall banking sector stood at NPR 12.90 billion for the third quarter of fiscal year 2069/70 compared to NPR 9.07 billion the previous year.

It is the first times in history that the profits of three commercial banks  -- Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and Everest Bank -- have surged past the billion rupee threshold.

During the review period, Nabil Bank Limited had the highest net profit among all the commercial banks. Nabil topped the table with a whopping profit of NPR 1.54 billion.

Meanwhile, the market share of the top five commercial banks is 45.71 percent, which is a fall from 48.02 percent in the second quarter, indicating that new commercial banks have been chipping away at the market share of the large banks.

During the review period, Machhapuchchhre Bank Limited was able to increase its net profit by 1370 percent, whereas Century Commercial Bank showed a worst performance as its profit decreased by a massive 166.20 percent compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.

Kist Bank Limited and Century Commercial Bank showed a dismal performance with negative growth rate in terms of net profit.

Source: ShareSansar, 2nd June 2013
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Massive increase in internet users in Nepal

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Nepal has achieved a 24.51 percent internet penetration, according to the latest figures released by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).

Driven by a significant growth in GPRS, ADSL, CDMA, optical fibre and 3G internet services, the number of data subscribers has increased to 6.4 million as of mid-April from 4.6 million a year ago (as of mid-April 2012). According to the NTA, a majority of the internet subscribers are cell phone users who use GPRS — a mobile data service — in the GSM mobile network of Ncell and Nepal Telecom.

Rising demand for data service and stiff market competition has compelled internet service providers (ISPs) to come up with newer schemes at competitive prices to attract customers.

Easy access to GPRS service, tariff cut, increased trend of using smart phones, social media craze among youngsters and increasing ICT knowledge are some of the major factors responsible for the growth in the number of data users.

After NT launched its new high-speed WiMax wireless internet service, ISPs too have slashed their tariffs with attractive schemes. For the growing competition in the data market, the state-owned company recently the slashed prices of almost of all of its data services, including GPRS, 3G and leased line services, with a target of “retaining existing customers and attracting new ones”.

NT is also working to take its new “Sky Pro” mobile data service, which is combined with voice, nationwide under the IP-CDMA project. “We are focusing more on data service as per the demand trend,” said Rajesh Joshi, joint spokesperson for NT. He said customers can use the Sky Pro service in laptop and desktop computers using a USB device.

ISPs, which earlier used to concentrate more on the corporate segment, have started to come up with attractive packages for general uses. According to the ISP Association of Nepal, there is a rapid growth in demand from individuals (30 percent a year) compared to that (10-15 percent a year) in the corporate segment.

Around 90 percent of the country’s data customers are mobile GPRS users. The remaining 10 percent are the users of 3G service, ADSL, optical fibre, cable modem, EDVO, CDMA 1X, dial up and WiMax services.

Ncell commands a 52 percent of the Nepali data market, while Nepal Telecom has a 46 percent share. The remaining two percent is shared by United Telecom Limited (UTL) and internet service providers (ISPs).
Although the growth in the overall internet service subscription is increasing, customers are shying away from dial-up data services for the availability of high-speed cable internet , wireless 3G internet , ADSL and WiMax.

The NTA said the dial-up user base declined to 15,445 users by mid-April from 18,747 users last year. Dial-up is nearly a two-decade-old technology and provides slow connectivity compared to wireless and optical fibre services.

Source: ekantipur, 26th May 2013.
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Canadian Investors now in Nepal and looking to Invest in Nepal

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

 Big investors from Canada have showed interest toward Nepal at a time when foreigners are disenchanted by political uncertainty in Nepal. Foreign investors, who were staying away from Nepal following the dissolution of Constituent Assembly (CA), have started to arrive in Nepal even as the activities for fresh election gather momentum.

A 14-member Canadian team including eight entrepreneurs and six high ranking representatives reached Nepal on Sunday. The team that is in Nepal on invitation of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) will hold discussions on investment possibilities in Nepal. The team will study about banks, hospitals, education consultancies, hydropower projects, residential colonies, hotels, resorts, urban designing and handicrafts while in Nepal.

The team includes Canadian Ambassador to Nepal Stewart Beck, representative of the High Commission of Canada in India Archana Mirajkar, Nadira Hamid from Indo-Canadian Business Chamber, Harsha Dhingra from Bombardier, Debaissh Guha from Arcop Associates among others.

Source: Karobar Daily, May 5th 2013

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