SKSE board plans to separate its subsidiary

SKSE holds 98% share in SKSE Securities

Saurashtra Kutch Stock Exchange (SKSE) is considering to separate its subsidiary SKSE Securities Limited to make it an independent entity so that it can operate as a broking firm. The board of directors will put forward the proposal in this regard in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 27.

"We are working to make SKSE Securities an independent company so that it can work as broking firm. Reducing holding from subsidiary will increase reserve fund of SKSE," said Sunil Shah, director, SKSE.

SKSE holds 98 per cent share in SKSE Securities. As per the proposal, subsidiary company will pay share price to SKSE and get 100 per cent holding with it. However, it is yet to decide that how much amount, SKSE Securities will have to pay to SKSE.

Shah said that we will discuss about it with our broker members in AGM and if all agree, then we will finalize the entire issue.

At present, there are over 40,000 trading accounts in SKSE Securities, which has daily turnover of about Rs 35 crore per day and last year, it had registered Rs 20 lakh profit. SKSE Securities, floated in 2001, is already operating as a broking house in Rajkot and Jamnagar but since the holding company, SKSE was facing actions from SEBI, it did not try to spread its network.

It may be noted that SEBI had derecognized SKSE in July 2007, on the grounds of vacuum at the top management level, inadequate infrastructure, broker's interference in the day-to-day operations of the exchange and the overall lack of interest of members to revive trading on the regional bourse.

Following the de-recognition, SKSE tried to merge with other regional stock exchanges, Vadodara Stock Exchange and Ahmedabad Stock Exchange but the idea failed to materialise.

Later, SKSEL body decided to adopt the exit policy in November 2012.

The board of directors are also considering to buy back trading card from broker members of the exchange but there is also a dispute in it. It is a rumour that the board is considering to offer Rs 2.50 lakh to buy back when members bought it in Rs 5 lakh at the time of beginning.

Currently, SKSE has 347 members, out of these only 70-80 members are active.

V P Vaishnav, director, SKSE said, "We have discussed about it but it is not fact that we will buy back card at lower rate. As per our calculation, value of each card will be not less than Rs 8 lakh."

SKSE will also discuss about buy back with broker members in the AGM.