Between Wednesday and Friday, four NEPSE-listed companies put dividend numbers on the table. Nabil Bank (NABIL)'s annual general meeting approved 15.80 percent. NMB Bank (NMB) proposed 7 percent in cash. Manjushree Finance (MFIL) proposed 20 percent. Kutheli Bukhari Small Hydropower (KBSH) proposed 18.95 percent. Add the headline percentages and the week produced 61.75 points of dividend. Add only the cash and the total is 33.75. The gap between those two numbers is the most useful thing dividend season will teach you this year.
Here is the week in one table, all figures for fiscal year 2082/83:
| Company | Bonus | Cash | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nabil Bank | 5.00% | 10.80% | 15.80% | Approved at 42nd AGM, Oct 8 |
| NMB Bank | 0% | 7.00% | 7.00% | Proposed Oct 7; needs NRB nod + AGM |
| Manjushree Finance | 5.00% | 15.00% | 20.00% | Proposed Oct 8; needs approvals |
| Kutheli Bukhari Small Hydro | 18.00% | 0.95% | 18.95% | Proposed Oct 8; needs ERC nod + AGM |
The biggest name moved first, and it is the only one of the four whose dividend is final. Nabil Bank's 42nd AGM, held on Thursday at the Tribhuvan Army Officers' Club in Kathmandu, approved 5 percent bonus shares and 10.80 percent cash for ordinary shareholders, after the board's recommendation and Nepal Rastra Bank's approval, according to Banking News. The bank earned a net profit of Rs 7.91 arba in FY 2082/83; the Rs 2.92 arba cash payout plus Rs 1.35 arba in bonus shares takes about 54 percent of that profit. After the bonus issue, paid-up capital crosses Rs 33.40 arba. Preference shareholders get 8 percent cash. Note the restraint underneath the headline: analysts had put Nabil's dividend capacity at 17.64 percent, so the 15.80 percent declared leaves a buffer rather than emptying the tank.
NMB Bank's proposal is the quiet radical of the four. The 517th board meeting, on October 7, proposed a 7 percent cash dividend and zero bonus shares, worth Rs 1.349 billion including tax, according to Financial Notices. No paper, all money, subject to the central bank's approval and the AGM's endorsement. It is also conservative against capacity: the same analyst estimates put NMB's dividend capacity at 10.40 percent, so the board proposed roughly two-thirds of what it could have. When a bank skips the bonus entirely, it is choosing to shrink nothing and dilute nobody; every rupee goes to the shareholder's bank account.
Manjushree Finance sits between the two banks. Its 338th board meeting on October 8 proposed 20 percent for FY 2082/83, split as 5 percent bonus and 15 percent cash. Three quarters of the headline is real money, which puts a finance company in the same camp as the commercial banks: cash-heavy, bonus-light.
Then there is Kutheli Bukhari, and the contrast is the point of this article. The hydropower company proposed 18 percent bonus shares worth Rs 2.65 crores and a 0.9474 percent cash dividend worth Rs 13.96 lakhs, for FY 2082/83, according to ShareSansar. Read that cash figure again: the cash exists almost entirely to pay the tax on the bonus. The proposal needs the Electricity Regulatory Commission's approval and the 15th AGM's endorsement before a single share is credited. The market liked it anyway. KBSH closed at Rs 804 on October 7, the day before the announcement, and rose 4.91 percent to Rs 970 on Friday, the week's top gainer among active stocks. Investors were buying the paper.
This four-company split is not an accident; it is the sector pattern showing up on schedule. An analysis of 96 recent Nepali declarations by Nepalytix found that 75 percent of headline 'dividend' was bonus shares, a further 4 percent was cash withheld for tax, and only 21 percent reached shareholders as cash. Hydropower companies put 91 percent of their declarations into bonus shares, microfinance 83 percent and non-life insurers 86 percent, while commercial banks and life insurers put half or more into real cash. This week's four fit the template exactly: the hydro name is 95 percent bonus, while the three BFIs range from 68 to 100 percent cash. The logic is straightforward. A hydropower company with loans to service would rather capitalize its profit than mail it out; a bank with a regulator watching its capital adequacy would rather show it can pay cash.
A few honest caveats before the season runs away with itself. Only Nabil's dividend is final; the other three are proposals, and proposals can shrink between the boardroom and the AGM once regulators weigh in. The 0.9474 percent figures and the like are precise because they are tax arithmetic, not generosity. Cash dividends also face withholding tax before they land, so even the cash column overstates what hits the account. And four companies are a week, not a season: banks must hold their AGMs by mid-January, and the full picture only emerges when the rest of the market declares.
Still, the week sets the terms. By mid-January the season's headline total will run into the hundreds of percentage points, and each announcement will be reported as a single impressive number. The number worth watching was never the headline. It is the cash column. This week it added to 33.75, and everything else was paper.
This article is published for research and education purposes only. It is not investment advice, and nothing here should be read as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Dividend proposals are subject to regulatory approval and AGM endorsement and may change. Figures reflect publicly reported information as of 10 October 2026.