KATHMANDU, DEC 14 - 2012
The Nepal Tele-communications Authority (NTA) has been working on a new rule to manage and regulate cross-holding by telecom companies. Cross-holding is a situation where a public company owns shares in another public company.
A committee under the coordination of former law secretary Madhav Paudel is putting the final touches to the regulation. It has been charged to recommend whether the government should allow cross-holding or not and why. The panel, which includes Nepal Rastra Bank executive director Bhaskar Mani Gyawali and Kailash Prasad Neupane of the NTA, has also been asked to advise the telecom authority how it should regulate cross-holding among its licensees, if it were to be allowed. The committee has been consulting economic experts like former finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal regarding the cross-holding provision.
“Our report is almost ready, and we will submit it to the NTA board soon,” said Neupane, member secretary of the committee and spokesperson of the NTA. He added that, based on a study of the existing provisions and laws, a few amendments needed to be made to the rules and regulation related to telecommunications to oversee cross-holding.
The issue of cross-holding in the telecom sector arose after Swedish-based TeliaSonera, the parent company of Ncell, acquired shares of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) about eight months ago. TeliaSonera had indirectly acquired NST shares through its subsidiary TeliaSonera Asia Holding BV. Reports said that TeliaSonera Asia had bought a 49 percent stake in Cypriot holding company Airbell Services which owns 75 percent of NST.
Meanwhile, TeliaSonera has been saying that it was very typical for it to have more than one brand in the market. During a visit to Nepal in August, Lars Nyburg, president and CEO of TeliaSonera, stated that they had invested in NST to expand services with a focus on rural areas. In July, NST signed a contract with Chinese telecom equipment vendor ZTE Corporation to extend its telecom service to the Western and Far Western regions.
After TeliaSonera invested in Ncell and NST, the NTA board had formed the committee in April to prepare a report on cross-holding and its regulation within a month. However, the committee fell behind schedule due to the demise of Paudel’s father, resignation of the NTA chairman and festival holidays, according to NTA.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
The Nepal Tele-communications Authority (NTA) has been working on a new rule to manage and regulate cross-holding by telecom companies. Cross-holding is a situation where a public company owns shares in another public company.
A committee under the coordination of former law secretary Madhav Paudel is putting the final touches to the regulation. It has been charged to recommend whether the government should allow cross-holding or not and why. The panel, which includes Nepal Rastra Bank executive director Bhaskar Mani Gyawali and Kailash Prasad Neupane of the NTA, has also been asked to advise the telecom authority how it should regulate cross-holding among its licensees, if it were to be allowed. The committee has been consulting economic experts like former finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal regarding the cross-holding provision.
“Our report is almost ready, and we will submit it to the NTA board soon,” said Neupane, member secretary of the committee and spokesperson of the NTA. He added that, based on a study of the existing provisions and laws, a few amendments needed to be made to the rules and regulation related to telecommunications to oversee cross-holding.
The issue of cross-holding in the telecom sector arose after Swedish-based TeliaSonera, the parent company of Ncell, acquired shares of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) about eight months ago. TeliaSonera had indirectly acquired NST shares through its subsidiary TeliaSonera Asia Holding BV. Reports said that TeliaSonera Asia had bought a 49 percent stake in Cypriot holding company Airbell Services which owns 75 percent of NST.
Meanwhile, TeliaSonera has been saying that it was very typical for it to have more than one brand in the market. During a visit to Nepal in August, Lars Nyburg, president and CEO of TeliaSonera, stated that they had invested in NST to expand services with a focus on rural areas. In July, NST signed a contract with Chinese telecom equipment vendor ZTE Corporation to extend its telecom service to the Western and Far Western regions.
After TeliaSonera invested in Ncell and NST, the NTA board had formed the committee in April to prepare a report on cross-holding and its regulation within a month. However, the committee fell behind schedule due to the demise of Paudel’s father, resignation of the NTA chairman and festival holidays, according to NTA.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
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