July 4: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has so far in the current fiscal year granted permission for the sale of ordinary shares (IPO) of a total of 18 companies.    
According to the Board, Union Life Insurance Company is the latest company that has been allowed to come up with IPO offerings. The company has been permitted to issue 6.45 million units of ordinary shares worth Rs 645 million.    
Based on the permission given by the board till date, a total of Rs 1434 billion ordinary shares are to be issued this year.    
Lately, the size of domestic share market has been expanded.    
According to SEBON, the number of beneficiary accounts, which was around 1.7 million at the end of last fiscal year has increased by 100 per cent and reached 3.5 million in this fiscal year.    
Similarly, the number of my share accounts, which was around 700,000, increased by over three folds and reached to 2.6 million.    
SEBON added that 500,000 people used to apply for IPOs in the past and this number has risen to 2.1 million these days.    
A total of 2.84 million have applied for the IPO issued by Jeevan Bikas Microfinance lately.    
Likewise, prior to this, 1.84 million had applied for the ordinary shares of Jyoti Life Insurance Company. -- RSS