How to apply for an IPO in MeroShare, step by step

An IPO (initial public offering), आईपीओ or प्रारम्भिक सार्वजनिक निष्काशन in Nepali, is a company's first sale of its shares to the public. Before it, the shares belong to the founders, the promoters (संस्थापक); after it, anyone with a demat account can own a piece. The full form says it all: initial, the first time; public, open to anyone; offering, shares for sale.

It happens in the primary market (प्राथमिक बजार): you buy straight from the company, and the money goes to it. Once the shares are listed on the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) they change hands between investors in the secondary market, and the company receives nothing from those trades.

Almost every Nepali IPO is sold at the share's face value (अंकित मूल्य) of Rs 100, so the smallest application, 10 units or kitta (कित्ता), costs Rs 1,000. Shares usually trade above Rs 100 once listed, so far more people apply than there are shares, and a lottery decides who gets them. That is why much of this page is about the lottery.

Each issue is run by an issue manager (निष्कासन तथा बिक्री प्रबन्धक), a SEBON-licensed merchant banker such as a bank's capital company. It publishes the prospectus (विवरणपत्र): what the company does, its accounts, what the money is for, the risks and the dates. SEBON, the Securities Board of Nepal, approves the issue; CDSC, the central depository, runs MeroShare and the result site.

An IPO application uses four things, and they must be linked before your first try. The order matters: the bank cannot issue the CRN until your demat account exists, because the CRN ties the two together.

• 1. A bank account in your own name at a bank in C-ASBA, the central version of ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount), which CDSC runs. 43 banks were in it on 3 November 2026. The money for your application is held in this account, not taken, until the lottery.
• 2. A demat account (हितग्राही खाता) at any of the 124 depository participants (DPs), often your bank's capital company. Its 16-digit number is your BOID (beneficial owner ID), and any shares you win are credited to it. A DP's schedule charges Rs 50 to open and Rs 100 a year; since 22 June 2026 a new account needs your national identity (NID) card or number. Step by step: how to open a demat account in Nepal.
• 3. MeroShare, CDSC's online service at meroshare.cdsc.com.np and in the MeroShare app, where you apply. Ask your DP for it when you open the demat account. It costs Rs 50 a year, and the login arrives by email, usually in 2–4 working days.
• 4. A CRN from your bank, which registers your bank account and your BOID together in C-ASBA. It has its own section below.
• Not needed yet: a broker and a TMS login. You need them only to sell the shares later. There were 81,23,973 demat accounts and 72,15,336 MeroShare registrations on 3 November 2026, most of them opened to apply for IPOs.

With the four in place, an application takes about two minutes. The labels below are the ones in CDSC's own MeroShare code, read on 3 November 2026, and the numbers match the picture. The website and the app are the same service with the same login.

1. 1Log in at meroshare.cdsc.com.np or in the MeroShare app: Select your DP, then your Username (numbers only, up to 8 digits) and Password. At the very first login MeroShare makes you set a 4-digit transaction PIN.
2. 2Open My ASBA in the menu, then the Applicable Issue tab (②), which many guides call Apply for Issue. It lists only the open issues you can apply for. Current Issue lists every open issue, including rights for other companies' holders and quotas you do not qualify for.
3. 3Find the company and check it before you press anything: the share type (an IPO for the general public reads Ordinary Shares; a quota reads Reserved), the Issue Close Date, the Price per Share, and the Minimum Quantity, Maximum Quantity and Divisible Quantity. The prospectus can be downloaded from the same panel. Then press Apply (③).
4. 4Choose your Bank and Account Number (④) from the lists. Branch fills itself. If your bank or account is missing, it has not been registered for C-ASBA.
5. 5Type the units in Applied Kitta (⑤): 10 is the minimum and, in a heavily oversubscribed issue, all you can win. Amount works itself out as units × price per share: Rs 1,000 for 10 at Rs 100.
6. 6Type your CRN (⑥) exactly as the bank gave it.
7. 7Tick the declaration and press Proceed (⑦).
8. 8Enter your 4-digit transaction PIN when MeroShare asks ("Please enter your 4 digits transaction PIN to proceed") and press Apply (⑧). A message confirms the application.
9. 9Check it went through: open Application Report (⑨), press Report beside the company, and watch the status change from Unverified to Verified.

MeroShare is the usual route, not the only one. Every route ends in the same place: CDSC's C-ASBA system, which checks your BOID and CRN, removes duplicates and tells the bank to block the money.

• The MeroShare app has the same My ASBA menu, login and PIN as the website.
• A bank branch. SEBON's FAQ on the migrant quota names ASBA member banks' branches beside MeroShare, and right-share issues have also taken paper forms at the issue manager's office. Whether every bank still takes paper IPO forms from the general public is for your bank to say.
• Your bank's mobile app. Some banks offer IPO applications inside mobile banking; Global IME Bank's, for example. It still needs your demat account and CRN, and Global IME warns that such an application cannot be cancelled once submitted.

The CRN (C-ASBA Registration Number) is the number your bank gives once it has checked your bank account against your demat account and registered you in CDSC's C-ASBA system. SEBON calls it mandatory for every applicant. You get it from your bank, online or at a branch, usually by giving your BOID; NIC Asia Bank, for one, explains its own steps on its help desk. It belongs to one bank account, so a remittance account opened for the migrant quota needs a CRN of its own.

If the bank has not registered it, MeroShare stops you with: "CRN Number Not Registered! Please make sure your ASBA bank has registered your CRN Number in C-ASBA." The fix is at the bank, not at your DP.

The transaction PIN is a 4-digit number you set at your first MeroShare login ("Please setup a 4 digit PIN code to execute transaction through mero share"). It replaced the one-time SMS code in September 2020, and it confirms every application and edit and every share transfer. It is not your login password.

• Forgot the PIN or password? Your DP resets them. NIC Asia Capital's MeroShare change form, for example, offers a transaction PIN reset, a password reset, unblocking, an email change and a mobile-number change.
• Never share either with an agent, a "bulk apply" helper or anyone who telephones. With your password and PIN, someone can apply, edit and move your shares out.
• Changed bank? Get a CRN for the new account before the next issue; the old one stays with the old account.

The minimum is 10 units, Rs 1,000 at Rs 100 a share; SEBON lowered it from 50 in 2019. The maximum is set for each issue and shown as Maximum Quantity: 20,000 units in Sanigad Hydro's June 2026 public issue, 50,000 in Taksar Pikhuwa's, 7,000 in Everest Colour's quota for Nepalis abroad. The units you type must also be a multiple of the panel's Divisible Quantity.

What applying for more does depends on how many others apply. Under SEBON's allotment guideline as it was reported in 2017, every applicant who is allotted gets 10 units first. When an issue is oversubscribed so heavily that not everyone can have 10, a lottery (गोलाप्रथा) picks who gets 10 and the rest get nothing. Only when everyone has had 10 and shares are left over do further rounds of 10 go to those who asked for more. Every 2026 lottery on this page was the first kind.

So in a lottery issue, applying for 1,000 units buys the same one chance at 10 units as applying for 10, while blocking Rs 1,00,000 instead of Rs 1,000. If you win, only the Rs 1,000 for 10 units is taken and the rest is released.

Sanigad Hydro's general public issue in June 2026 offered 46,74,000 units. 27,27,515 valid applications asked for 2,97,50,210, 6.4 times as many, 10.9 units each on average. 4,67,400 applicants won 10 units each, which is every share offered (4,67,400 × 10 = 46,74,000). The chance was 4,67,400 ÷ 27,27,515 = 17.1%, about one in 6. 22,60,115 people got nothing.

That is about 53% of the 51,15,178 MeroShare users CDSC counted as active in November 2026. Between them they blocked about Rs 297.5 crore for the Rs 46.74 crore of shares on offer to the general public, and everything but that Rs 46.74 crore went back to their accounts.

The quota for Nepalis abroad is a separate lottery with odds of its own, and not always better. In Beni Hydropower's, in March 2026, 79,232 valid applications competed for 1,04,000 units, and 10,400 won 10 each: 13.1%, about one in 8.

Each lottery is separate, so the chance of winning at least once grows with the number of issues you apply to. If every issue had the same odds:

Not every share in an IPO goes to the general public. Parts are set aside as quotas (आरक्षित कोटा), each with its own window and its own lottery, and the prospectus lists them. The locals' and migrants' quotas usually open first and the general public's later. Taksar Pikhuwa Khola Hydropower's issue of March 2026 shows the usual split:

Every company approved for an IPO from 3 November 2022 must set aside 10% of the shares it issues to the public for Nepalis working abroad with labour approval (श्रम स्वीकृति) from the Government of Nepal. It is rule 9(6क) of SEBON's Securities Registration and Issue Regulations, 2073. Reliance's issue of December 2025 set aside 1,15,596 of 11,55,960 units, 10%. SEBON's own FAQ sets the conditions:

• Labour approval. Without it you are not eligible, however long you have worked abroad.
• A remittance savings account (रेमिट्यान्स बचत खाता) in your own name at a C-ASBA bank. An existing remittance account can be switched to the scheme once the bank has seen your labour-approval papers.
• A demat account through a DP. An old one is fine, and from abroad both accounts can be opened online.
• A CRN for the remittance account, issued once you give the bank your labour-approval details. The CRN of your ordinary account does not count.
• At least Rs 50,000 sent into that account from your country of work in the last six months. Money deposited inside Nepal does not count. You may top it up from abroad until the issue closes.

1. 1Watch for the quota. It opens before the general public issue, and the issue manager's notice names it as the quota for Nepalis in foreign employment.
2. 2In MeroShare, open My ASBA, then Applicable Issue, and choose the reserved issue for foreign employment. MeroShare checks your BOID's eligibility.
3. 3Choose the remittance account as the bank account and type its CRN.
4. 4Enter the units, tick the declaration, press Proceed and confirm with your PIN, exactly as in the main steps.
5. 5Or apply at a branch of a C-ASBA bank, which typically asks for the labour permit, passport, visa and a photo.

Open My ASBA, then Application Report, and press Report beside the company. It shows the units you applied for, the amount, the bank account, the status, any Remarks and, after the lottery, the Alloted Quantity (CDSC's spelling).

The status moves through stages. In demonstrations of the screen, Unverified means CDSC has your application but the bank has not yet confirmed that it blocked the money; Verified means the money is blocked and the application is waiting for the allotment; Alloted means you got shares. Unverified usually turns Verified within hours. If it has not by the next working day, ask your bank: the usual causes are the CRN and the balance.

Your money is blocked (रोक्का), not taken. It stays in your account, but you cannot spend it until the allotment is done.

• To change the units, press Edit beside the application while the issue is open, tick the box ("Check the checkbox to make change in quantity and to proceed in next step"), enter the new quantity and confirm with your PIN.
• There is no withdraw button. MeroShare's code has no way to cancel an application once it is sent, and Global IME Bank says the same of its mobile route. The nearest thing is to Edit the units down to the minimum.
• Reapply appears only on an application that was removed or whose block failed, so it can be sent again while the issue is still open.
• After the closing date nothing can be changed and no new application is accepted. An issue closes at the end of its last day, and a quota can close early.
• Old Application Report keeps your past applications.

After the issue closes, the issue manager runs the allotment (बाँडफाँड). Sanigad Hydro's public issue opened on 1 June 2026 and its allotment was announced on 15 June, 14 days later; when SEBON approved C-ASBA in 2017 it said allotment should be done within 15 days. There are four ways to see the result:

1. 1CDSC's result site, iporesult.cdsc.com.np. Choose the company from the list, type your 16-digit BOID and press View Result. It answers for one BOID at a time, so check each family member's separately.
2. 2MeroShare: My ASBA, Application Report, then Report beside the company. The status and the Alloted Quantity show what you got.
3. 3Your holdings: shares you win appear under My Shares once they are credited to your demat account, before the company is listed.
4. 4The issue manager's notice, on its website and in the financial news, which also says when the unallotted money is being released.

If you win nothing, the whole amount is released. If you applied for more than 10 and won 10, only Rs 1,000 is taken and the rest is released. After the allotment, the issue manager tells the C-ASBA banks to unblock the amounts for shares not allotted.

No rule we found sets how many days that takes. SEBON's 2017 directive aimed to finish the whole allotment within 15 days, and the release follows the allotment notice. It is usually reported within a few days of the result, but it differs between issue managers and banks.

• Look at your bank, not MeroShare. The block is the bank's; your bank app or statement shows when it lifts.
• Still blocked a week after the result? Ask your bank's C-ASBA desk first, then the issue manager named in the prospectus and on the issue panel.
• Do not count on blocked money for the next issue. If two issues overlap, an application for the second fails for want of balance until the first is released.

Shares you win are credited to your demat account after the allotment and show under My Shares. You cannot sell them until the company's listing on NEPSE, and the gap between allotment and listing varies from issue to issue. Shares from the general public's quota have no lock-in; locals' and employees' shares are locked for three years.

Selling works like any other sale: a sell order through a broker's TMS, then the transfer in MeroShare under My EDIS by the next working day, with the money on T+2. Every screen is in how to sell shares in Nepal.

Their cost for tax is what you paid, Rs 100 a share, with no buying commission. A gain is taxed 5% if you sell within 365 days of the shares reaching your demat account, and 3.75% after that, the rates for resident individuals since 22 September 2026; the broker deducts it at settlement. More in capital gains tax on shares in Nepal.

Ten IPO shares sold, at three illustrative prices, with every charge from SEBON's and CDSC's schedules. At Rs 150 a share, the fixed Rs 25 DP charge, the Rs 10 minimum commission and the SEBON fee take 2.3% of the sale; below Rs 103.52 a share, 10 IPO shares lose money.

Most rejections come from a few causes, and all of them can be avoided before the issue closes. In Standard Chartered's 2017 FPO alone, 3,741 applicants were disqualified for a wrong demat number, and others for duplicates and odd quantities.

My ASBA handles every public issue, not only IPOs. The issue panel's share type tells you which one it is, and the steps are the same: Apply, bank, units, CRN, declaration, PIN.

• An FPO (further public offering) is the same application as an IPO, but the company already trades, so you can compare the offer price with the market price before applying.
• A right share issue shows only to holders, with a Right Kitta Eligibility field giving how many you may apply for. Rights not taken up are auctioned: of Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower's 1:1 right of 40,00,000 units in 2026, 88.13% were taken up and 4,74,696 went to a sealed-bid auction with a minimum bid of Rs 100 and at least 100 units. We found no way to sell a right on NEPSE. More in bonus share and right share in Nepal.
• Mutual funds: a closed-ended fund sells its units once, through MeroShare, and then trades on NEPSE. Open-ended funds, the ones a SIP pays into, are bought from the fund manager at that day's NAV instead: see SIP in Nepal.

Each person applies for themselves: their own demat account, their own MeroShare login and their own CRN. MeroShare logs in one demat account at a time, and C-ASBA allows one application per person per issue. A household of four with four accounts has four separate chances in the lottery, not one bigger one.

Children can hold demat accounts with the father or mother as guardian, on a birth registration certificate; CDSC's spokesperson put the number at 10,03,006 in August 2026, opened mainly to apply for IPOs. The child takes over the account at 18. MeroShare has a "Linked Account" selector, set to Self by default; whether a guardian can apply for a child from their own login, and which bank account the child's CRN uses, is for your DP and bank to confirm.

What not to do is open a second account for the same person. The same report counted 5 to 6 lakh duplicate demat accounts, and two applications from one person get every application rejected.

Open issues show in MeroShare and on CDSC's list; coming ones are on SEBON's pipeline. Whichever it is, the prospectus is worth reading before you apply.

• Open now: My ASBA in MeroShare (Current Issue and Applicable Issue) and CDSC's current issue list at cdsc.com.np/ipolist. The financial news carries each issue manager's notice with the dates.
• Coming: SEBON's IPO pipeline, at sebon.gov.np/ipo-pipeline, lists the companies waiting for approval. An issue opens only after approval and the issue manager's notice.
• 2026 was slow. SEBON approved no IPO between 27 April and early October 2026, with 108 companies waiting by 3 September, and published a draft eligibility directive for public issues in September.
• Read the prospectus first; it downloads from the MeroShare issue panel. This page names no IPO to apply for, but these are the things to look up in any of them:

1. 1What the company does, and whether it earns yet. A hydropower project still being built earns nothing until it generates.
2. 2Its profits or losses for the last few years, in the prospectus.
3. 3What the money is for: building, repaying loans or meeting a regulator's capital rule.
4. 4Who the promoters are, and when their three-year lock-in ends, when more shares can reach the market.
5. 5How it compares with listed companies in the same sector, which you can see on NEPSE.