Try to explain what BO2 is doing: 
 Business Oxygen Private Limited (BO2) is Nepal’s first private-equity fund that has a climate focus. It is a part of the IFC’s Global SME Ventures initiative with investments from the IFC of the World Bank Group, Climate Investment Fund’s (PPCR) and UK Aid’s DFID and is managed by WLC Ventures Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of White Lotus Centre Pvt. Ltd. This sector-agnostic fund combines risk capital financing with advisory support to help investee small and medium enterprises develop fundamental financial systems, quality-assurance standards, and corporate governance frameworks.   Can you give an […]

  Nepal’s future may not be in hydropower, as most assume, but actually in the dung heap. A new industrial-scale biogas plant near Pokhara has proved that livestock and farm waste producing flammable methane gas can replace imported LPG and chemical fertiliser. Over the past 30 years, Nepal has become a world leader in spreading locally-designed household biogas digesters. There are now 300,000 of them, helping reduce deforestation, improving people’s health and lifting women out of drudgery and poverty. Now, a company in Pokhara has enlarged household digesters into an industrial scale plant that uses climate-friendly technology that could ultimately […]

– Deepak Sharma Background Private Equity and Venture capital (PEVC) is newly introduced alternative financing model in Nepal. Looking at the current trend PEVC could gain importance in Nepal. According to World Bank Enterprise Survey 2013, 364 percent collateral is needed for bank loans in Nepal which is way above the South Asian average. Only 35 percent of Nepali firms have access to bank loans and access to finance has been identified as a major constraint for 40 percent of Nepali firms. So, an alternative source of finance, risk capital to be specific, was to give vibrancy to the business […]

The rule banning FDI less than Rs50 million is a slap in the face of small and medium enterprises – Ritu Pradhan Malla It is whimsical to expect a small tree to provide boundless fruit without fertilising it and enabling its roots to grow. But that seems to be what Nepal’s policy-makers think. Government revenue is dependent on imports, instead of building a sustainably nurturing an enabling business environment for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). Such narrow vision is discouraging entrepreneurship and making Nepal further dependent on the outside. Our largest export market is labour with income generated by as […]

– SIDDHANT RAJ PANDEY At the Global Private Equity Conference in Washington, DC last month discussions ranged from geopolitics and the global economy to investing across borders to releasing $150 trillion of blocked assets in emerging markets–among many other interesting topics that delved on issues of governance, climate change and impact investing. At the same time, halfway around the globe, back home in Nepal, new rules had been put in place that raised the barrier-to-entry for foreign direct investments from Rs5 million to Rs50 million. The logic behind the tenfold increment seems to escape everyone conversant in dealing with foreign […]

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul (https://www.dealstreetasia.com/author/chalida/) Business Oxygen (https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Business+Oxygen) (BO2), the first private equity firm in Nepal, plans to make up to 14 investments in total and deploy about 80 per cent of its $14-million fund by the year end, chairman and CEO Siddhant Raj Pandey told DEALSTREETASIA. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, appointed White Lotus Centre Pvt. Ltd. as fund manager for Business Oxygen, its SME ventures fund in Nepal, in 2015. BO2 is an 80:20 joint venture between International Finance Corporation (IFC) and local business consultancy firm White Lotus Centre. BO2 fund focuses on investing in Nepal’s high-growth, […]

Nepal’s first private equity fund is empowering SMEs in a bid to foster development and augment the country’s economy. As Nepal goes through a transformational change in business patterns, private equity is becoming a valid market solution for companies with excellent growth potential. The need for risk capital remains high in this situation. Business Oxygen Private Limited (BO2), a part of International Finance Corporation’s Global SME Ventures initiative, which supports the creation of risk capital funds in fragile, frontier, and post-conflict markets, is Nepal’s first private equity (PE) fund. It is also the first climate-related PE fund in the country. […]

Sewa Bhattarai They say new Acts do not address their misgivings about investing in their homeland Learning from the success of overseas Chinese and Indians investing in their homeland, the Nepal government hurriedly passed two foreign investment related bills recently. But non-resident Nepalis are not impressed. The Public Private Partnership and Investment (PPPIA) Bill was passed by Parliament on 18 March, and the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer (FITTA) Bill on 22 March, but investors say it does not go far enough in allying their concerns. Source : Nepali Times

सरकार अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय लगानी सम्मेलनको तयारीमा जुटेको छ । आगामी चैत १५ र १६ गते मुलुकको राजधानी काठमाडौंमा बहुप्रतीक्षित लगानी सम्मेलन आयोजना हुँदैछ । सम्मेलनमा करिब ४० देशबाट सात सयभन्दा बढी विदेशी लगानीकर्ता सहभागी हुने सरकारको भनाइ छ । लगानी सम्मेलनलाई मध्यनजर गर्दै सरकार र निजी क्षेत्र मिलेर ३९ अर्बका परियोजना छनोट गरेका छन् । ती परियोजनामा बाह्य लगानीको अपेक्षा सरकारको छ । लगानी सम्मेलनलाई ध्यानमा राखेर सरकारले नीतिगत सुधारसमेत गरेका छ । यसबीच केही नयाँ कानुन बनेका छन् । केही पुराना ऐन–कानुन संशोधन गरिएका छन् । सरकारले ठूलो आशासहित आयोजना गरेको लगानी सम्मेलनको तयारी, यसका प्राथमिकता, लगानीको सम्भाव्यता र मुलुकले […]

The Post talked with some of the stakeholders who deal with FDI to know whether new laws address investors’ concerns, whether they will allure them into investing in Nepal and whether they are on a par with regional standards. – MUKUL HUMAGAIN, Kathmandu The government is organising the Investment Summit 2019 on March 29-30. And to attract foreign investors, the government has introduced three vital legislations–foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, Public-Private Partnership and Investment Act, and Special Economic Zone Act (First Amendment). The KP Sharma Oli government plans to showcase these Acts as the driving force for more and […]