Soaltee Hotel Declares Dividends

Soaltee Hotel has announced bonus shares and cash dividends.

The 161st board of directors' (BoD) meeting of Soaltee Hotel Ltd on Wednesday proposed 20 per cent bonus shares and 11.5 per cent cash dividend to its shareholders.

The proposal is subject to approval from its annual general meeting (AGM), said the hotel that has decided to hold its 35th AGM on December 17.

There are only four hotels listed under the hotels subgroup in Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse).

Hotel Yak & Yeti, Soaltee Hotel, Taragoan Regency (Hyatt) Hotel and Oriental Hotel (Radisson) have listed a total of 24,225,898-unit shares in the secondary market.

But Soaltee Hotel has a paidup value of Rs 10 per unit share whereas the remaining three have Rs 100 paid-up value per unit share. However, the secondary market has witnessed a regular trading of only two hotels -- Soaltee Hotel and Oriental Hotel (Radisson). The shares of Taragoan Regency (Hyatt) Hotel also is being traded though, irregularly.

Oriental Hotel (Radisson) has held its 12th annual general meeting on September 16. Both the shares of Oriental Hotel and Soaltee Hotel have been trading for around Rs 200 per unit.

Hotel Yak & Yeti that has listed 2,209,208-unit of shares with a face value of Rs 100 per unit, wants to be delisted from Nepse.

Hotel Yak & Yeti could be delisted soon, according to Nepse. According to the rule, if a company does not pay annual renewal fee for three consecutive years, it can be delisted. The hotel has not paid its renewal fee for three consecutive years.

The Nepse board has also discussed the hotel's request to be delisted but has not taken any decision.

Meanwhile, Kist Bank's board of directors' meeting has also proposed 1:1.5 rights shares and 3.5 per cent cash dividends from the profits of the fiscal yaer 2008-09.

The youngest commercial bank --- that has upgraded from the Class-C finance company to Class A commercial bank -- has planned its annual general meeting on November 14. The AGM will approve the BoD's decision. It will have its books closure for the AGM from October 30 to Novermber 14. The bank has planned to increase its paidup capital to Rs 5 billion -- the largest amount among commercial banks in the country.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), a commercial bank needs to have Rs 2 billion paid-up capital.

Meanwhile, Nepse again dropped below the 600-point mark to close trading on the first day of the week at 599.22 points. Nepse lost 1.94 points from the morning's opening of 601.16 points.