ICRA Nepal Limited, a credit rating agency in Nepal, has assigned (ICRANP-IR) AA+ (pronounced ICRA NP Issuer Rating double-A plus) to the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Issuers with this rating AA+ are considered to have a high degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations. Such issuers carry very low credit risk.
The rating is only an opinion on the general creditworthiness of the rated entity and not specific to any particular debt instrument. Commenting on the rating, the NEA Executive Director Kulman Ghising said this ICRA rating to the NEA means it is considered to have a high degree of safety concerning timely servicing of its financial obligations.
“The NEA has taken out loans from multi-sectoral development partners like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank with Government of Nepal as the guarantor. Now with this rating, it can directly seek and take out loans from such partners with its institutional guarantee,” he said.
On issuing an initial public offering to the public, he said discussions with the government were underway in this regard.
“Now we will take forward the process of issuing IPO to the general public as per the act with the government’s consensus.” The NEA has posted Rs 12 billion in profit in six months of the current fiscal year, 2021/22.
