Hydroelectricity Investment and Development Company Limited (HIDCL) is all set to conduct a Rs2 billion initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, the largest ever in the country.

The government-owned company, which was formed to generate resources for investment in hydropower projects, has aimed to boost its paid-up capital to Rs10 billion from the present Rs8 billion with the IPO. The prospectus for the IPO was published last week. Of the total 20 million shares scheduled to be floated during the IPO, 400,000 shares have been reserved for its employees while 1 million shares have been allocated for six various mutual funds. The rest of the shares will be sold to the general public, the company said.

On Wednesday, HIDCL announced that the time limit for share issuance would be extended till November 5 from the earlier November 2 deadline considering the disruption to transportation due to the fuel crisis created by the unofficial Indian embargo.

Deepak Rauniyar, chief executive officer of HIDCL, said that the company believed that all the shares would be subscribed to despite the large size of the IPO.

“As there is an attraction for shares of hydropower companies, we can attract investors since we are an institution focused on financing hydropower and transmission line projects,” he said.

The Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) has been named the issue manager for the IPO while NCM Merchant Banking and NMB Capital have been appointed as the co-issue managers. The government has invested Rs5 billion in HIDCL while Rastriya Beema Sansthan, Citizen Investment Trust and Employees Provident Fund have poured in Rs1 billion each.

HIDCL was formed in 2011 to mobilize funds from domestic and international resources to finance medium-sized and large hydropower projects and electricity transmission lines.

It has so far co-financed six hydropower projects with capacities ranging from 23.5 MW to 82 MW. It has bankrolled projects like the Lower Solu (82 MW), Mistri Khola (42 MW), Khani Khola (30 MW), Dordi Khola (27 MW), Kabeli B1 (25 MW) and Solu Khola (23.5 MW).

HIDCL has sought to develop two mid-sized hydropower projects through its subsidiary company Remit Hydro.