Why companies list on NEPSE

A company that needs money has two broad choices. It can borrow it, and owe interest and repayment on a schedule regardless of how business goes. Or it can sell a piece of itself, and owe nothing — no interest, no repayment date.

The second is what listing does. The company sells shares to the public, receives cash, and in exchange gives up part of its ownership and accepts a set of obligations.

What does a company take on by listing?

• Disclosure. Quarterly and annual reports, published, on time.
• Regulation. SEBON oversight, and for banks and insurers, sector regulators on top.
• Scrutiny. A visible price that reacts to every decision management makes.
• Dilution. The founders own a smaller slice than they did before.

This matters to you as an investor because it is the source of everything you will later analyse. A listed company has to publish its numbers. An unlisted one does not. Chapter 6 is entirely about reading those published numbers, and it only works because listing forces them into the open.

Why do Nepali companies list on NEPSE?

In Nepal, listing is often not purely a choice. Banks, insurance companies and other regulated institutions face minimum public shareholding requirements — a portion of their capital must be held by the public. That is why the exchange is so heavily weighted toward financial institutions.

Hydropower companies list for a different reason: building a project needs a great deal of money up front and returns it slowly over decades. Equity suits that shape better than debt does.