SEBON's six-stage IPO queue hands traders a supply calendar

The queue is now a calendar

Only two of the 117 companies waiting for share-sale clearance have reached the board's final approval stage, while 76 have barely filed. That distribution is the trade: supply will not arrive in a single wave, and each pending issue can now be weighted by how far along it actually is.

The Securities Board of Nepal sorted the applicants into six steps — application registration, preliminary examination, queries sent, replies received, review of those replies, and final scrutiny. The stages map filing status rather than queue position, but they let an investor separate issues that could price within weeks from those that are months away.

What is actually pending

The whole pipeline covers shares worth Rs 71.42 arba across hydropower, manufacturing and processing, hotels and tourism, investment, microinsurance and other sectors. Five applicants have asked to price at a premium, which bears on how much paper each eventually pulls out of the secondary market.

Closest to clearance are Ashutosh Energy, with 12 lakh shares at Rs 12 crore, and Kantipur Pharmaceuticals Lab, with 17 lakh shares at Rs 17 crore. Both have completed documentation and process, per the board.

Behind them sit 10 companies that have answered board queries and await review, proposing Rs 5.19 arba — Sanima Hydropower, IME, Siuri Nyadi Power, Hilton Hydro and Myadame Khola Hydropower among them. Another 19 have filed responses on issues worth Rs 19.90 arba, including Dish Media Network, Jagdamba Steels, Shaurya Cement, Hospital for Advanced Medicine and Nilgiri Khola Hydropower. Four — Mahashakti Cement, Shubhashree Agni Cement, Laxmi Technoplast and Jasmine Paints — are at the comment stage on Rs 4 arba. Six more are in preliminary examination on Rs 1.54 arba, and the 76 at registration account for Rs 40.48 arba.

The tape was already firm

The wider market has been leaning up: NEPSE closed at 2,695.6 on 29 October, up 1.18% for the session and 2.65% across five sessions, though still under its 52-week high of 2,969.5. That is the backdrop against which any large issue will be absorbed.

What changes the picture

The next marker is the board's forthcoming approval decision — whether Ashutosh Energy and Kantipur Pharmaceuticals Lab are cleared, and whether any of the 10 under review advance. Movement in that group would be the first real test of how quickly the calendar turns into supply.