Upadhyaya Recommends NDB's Revival

Asks court who are small depositors; urges it to release employees'salary

Investigation officer T R Upadhyaya has suggested the revival of troubled Nepal Development Bank (NDB). He has recommended to Patan Appellate Court that the bank has chances of revival as the Badri Bhattarai-Nabin Pun Group has given bank guarantees equivalent to Rs 340 million -- Rs 240 million and Rs 100 million each.

However, he has asked the court to clarify who the small depositors are and how much should they get.

The Court had earlier instructed him to pay them first. Tomorrow, the court will define the small depositors and the amount they should get, and it will also order that the salaries of the employees be paid as they have not got their salaries. The employees had urged IO Upadhyaya to get them their salaries before Dashain. Upadhyaya has urged the Court for payment of the employees salaries.

There are around 30 employees including those in NDB's Pokhara branch office and head office in Kamaladi of Kathmandu.

However, based on the recommendations of Upadhyaya the Court will decide either to revive the bank or send it into liquidation after Dashain.

The recommendation has clearly stated that the bank, even if revived, cannot pay institutional depositors like Nepal Army and Employment Provident Fund. "If the bank is revived and runs according to the plan of the Bhattarai-Pun group, these institutions could get their deposits after three years," the recommendation said. It said that the settlement of Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and Non-Banking Assets (NBA) with capital injection will help improve the financial health of the bank as its Capital Adequacy Ration (CAR) will come to 11 per cent. In his report, Upadhyaya has recommended that the bank can be revived with internal resources (Rs 274.64 million) and Rs 320 million capital injection from the Bhattarai-Pun Group.

Bhattarai -- the current promoter -- has given a Rs 240 million bank guarantee through Kumari Bank. Pun -- son of `controversial' former NDB chairman Uttam Pun -- has given Rs 100 million bank guarantee through Kist Bank.

If NDB settles its NPA -- Rs 110 million with Holyland School, Rs 90 million with Nepal Cooperatives Ltd and Rs 80 million with Gurkha Hydropower -- it can be revived, Upadhyaya has recommended in his report to Patan Appellate Court this week. Bhattarai-Pun Group's claim of settling the NPA and NBA before injecting Rs 340 million capital has been accepted by the investigation officer. Bhattarai -- who personally holds 10,000-unit of promoters shares of NDB -- can also add Rs 80 million that is deposited for rights shares by the share holders. But Nepal Rastra Bank has frozen the money.

Neither all the promoters nor all the shareholders bought the rights shares. According to the new Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) rule, the promoters have to buy the rights shares before floating it to ordinary shareholders.

The first development bank of Nepal has 19,865 shareholders and around 4,000 depositors. Patan Appellate Court appointed Upadhyaya as investigation officer on July 29 as per the Insolvency Act 2007. This is the first of its kind of case in the financial history of Nepal that the investigation officer himself has not got his fee though his payment comes as the first priority. The Court will decide the fee of the investigation officer.