Every dividend season, the same question floods investor groups: the AGM approved the bonus weeks ago, so where are the shares? The answer has three gates — and the wait, sometimes months long, is the system working as designed, not your account malfunctioning.
Start with what a bonus share is at birth. When a company's board proposes a bonus and the annual general meeting approves it, the new shares exist only as a resolution. They appear in no register, credit to no account, and cannot be traded. The declaration is the starting gun, not the finish line.
Gate one is shareholder approval itself. The AGM's resolution authorizes the company to create the new shares — one new share for each share held in a 100% bonus, nine per hundred in a 9% bonus. Until that vote, everything before it is only a proposal.
The listing is where the time goes
Gate two is the NEPSE listing — and this is the step investors never see. After the AGM, the company applies to NEPSE to list the new shares, filing the AGM resolution, the shareholder register and the registrar's certification. NEPSE verifies the documents, then issues a listing notice. Compiling and checking this paperwork is what stretches the timeline: Standard Chartered Bank Nepal's 100% bonus, declared in December 2017, was listed in the last week of March 2018 — about three months later. Machhapuchhre Bank's 9% bonus took about five months from declaration to listing; NMB Microfinance's 25% bonus took about four.
There is no published fixed timetable for this leg. A clean filing moves in weeks; a filing with queries or missing documents moves in months. The delay sits with the company's paperwork and the exchange's verification — not with your broker or your demat account, so calling either changes nothing.
Only listed shares can be sold
Gate three is the demat credit. Once NEPSE lists the shares, the new units are credited to shareholders' demat accounts through CDS and Clearing, and only then do they appear in MeroShare holdings. This is also the moment they become sellable: an unlisted bonus share cannot be sold at any price, because as far as the market is concerned it does not yet exist.
The part that confuses investors is the sequencing. The market price adjusts for the bonus around the record date — the day the entitlement is fixed (see how book closure decides who gets the dividend) — while the new units arrive weeks or months later, after listing. Watching the price fall while your new shares have not arrived is the normal order of events, not an error in your account.
The rule to carry into every dividend season is simple: a declared bonus is not a delivered bonus. Watch for the NEPSE listing notice — it is the single event that ends the wait, and everything before it is just the queue. Track declarations and corporate actions on Nepse Decode.
Frequently asked questions
When do bonus shares reach my demat account?
After three steps: the AGM approves the bonus, the company applies to NEPSE and NEPSE lists the new shares after verifying the documents, and the units are then credited to demat accounts via CDS and Clearing. Only listed bonus shares can be traded.
Why does it take months after the AGM?
The company must file the AGM resolution, the shareholder register and the registrar's certification, and NEPSE must verify them before issuing a listing notice. Past cases show the range: Standard Chartered's 100% bonus took about three months from declaration to listing, Machhapuchhre Bank's 9% about five months, NMB Microfinance's 25% about four. The timeline depends on paperwork, not on your broker.
Can I sell bonus shares before they are listed?
No. An unlisted bonus share cannot be sold at any price — it becomes your tradable property only after NEPSE lists it and the units are credited to your demat account.
The price adjusted on the ex-date but my bonus shares haven't arrived — is something wrong?
No, this is the normal sequence. The price adjustment happens around the record date, while the new units arrive later — after the NEPSE listing notice and the demat credit. The two events run on different timelines by design.
Who do I contact if the wait is very long?
The company's share registrar, named in the dividend notice — not your broker. If weeks have passed since the AGM with no listing notice, the holdup is almost always documentation at the company's end.
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. Figures used are illustrative examples for teaching.