When a 45-year old businessman in Phuentsholing went to the RICBL office yesterday afternoon to claim his refund on the excess investment made for Druk PNB shares, his name was not the list.

On enquiring, he was told that somebody had misplaced the receipt book that had the details of his investment. “I was already frustrated to know that I’ll get only 34 of the 1,000 shares I applied for,” he said. “And what they told me got me really mad.”

A total of 818 applicants from Phuentsholing and Samdrupjongkhar, who invested a total of Nu 12.7M for Druk PNB shares, have been left out of the allotment, because the files containing their names never reached Thimphu.

“Two files, one from Phuentsholing and the other from Samdrupjongkhar with the names of subscribers got misplaced,” said RICBL’s general manager for finance and accounts, Sonam Dorji. The files from all RICBL branch offices that sold the shares had to be transported to Thimphu for the final data entry.

According to Sonam Dorji, RICBL securities limited, a subsidiary of RICBL, found out about the missing files only after the allotment of shares started on July 19. “People began to show up for the refunds, but their names weren’t in the database,” he said.

Over the next two days the brokerage firm confirmed that 818 applicants had been left out, by checking with the duplicate receipts maintained by the branch offices.

Yesterday, an emergency meeting was held where a special committee, comprising the company registrar, the industry director, the CEO of the security exchange and the central bank’s financial institution’s supervisory head, questioned the lapse and looked at what could be done.

“The committee decided that all investors that were not allotted shares be given a 15 percent interest payment on their investment as compensation,” said Sonam Dorji. “Although the companies act does not say anything on such circumstances, it does mention a 15 percent interest payment, if allotment isn’t done within 45 days after the share offer closes.”

He said that such a decision was taken because the shares had already been allotted and could not be drawn back. He also said that the officials of the brokerage firm would go to the two branch offices and explain about the lapses.

RICBL’s chief executive officer, Namgay Lhendup, said that RICBL fully acknowledges the lapses, but says that it is not because of their inefficiency, but because of the huge number of people applying for the shares. “When the 21 companies listed with the stock exchange number has only 17,500 subscribers, there are about 24,000 applying for Druk PNB,” he said.

“We regret and apologise to the applicants,” he said, adding that RICBL would pay 15 percent interest as a compensation to all shareholders not allotted the shares.

Meanwhile, the affected people Kuensel talked to, said that alternative was not acceptable. “Why can’t we have the shares instead?” a businessman said. “RICBL should investigate and find out more about this and how and why the files went missing,” he said.

The man argued that the applicants trusted the financial institutions and withdrew all their savings to invest. “How can they say that we’ll be compensated and leave it at that?”  Source: Kuenselonline