Interkraft Nepal has outbid the Independent Power Company (IPC) and the Chaudhary Group in the bid to take over the Butwal Power Company, which the government has been trying to privatise for the last three years. The Interkraft bid was Rs 950 million-up from its third round offer of Rs 730 million-against the Chaudhary Group's Rs 866 million. The Interkraft bid comes in the form of Rs 874.20 million in Nepali money and Rs 1 million in US dollars, while the IPC-Chaudhary Group quoted its entire bid amount in Nepali rupees. The government has had four rounds of tenders in its attempt to sell its 75 percent holding in the BPC, but the process has been caught up in one tangle or another. (See "BPC on the block again," #60)

The IPC-CG combine was disqualified from the bidding in the last round and the government rejected the lone bid from Interkraft on a "technicality," essentially a typographical slip relating to the bid amount. Government sources later told us the single bid had been rejected because the offer was too small in dollar terms. How the privatisation of the BPC proceeds will be closely watched by other investors and Nepal's donors.