BSE SME platform crosses 200 companies milestone

Maharashtra govt is ready to create a joint working group with BSE to promote SMEs listing: Fadnavis

Asia's oldest stock exchange BSE's platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on Thursday crossed the 200 mark with the listing of three more companies.

The three companies listed on BSE SME are Share India Securities, Trident Texofab and Poojawestern Metaliks.

With the listing of these companies today, the number of companies listed stood at 201 on the BSE SME platform.

"The S&P BSE SME IPO Index was launched in August 2012 with a base of 100, is today at a close of 1,490, an astounding return of 1,390 per cent and it has outperformed the Benchmark S&P BSE Sensex more than 13 times in that period," BSE managing director and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said at the listing ceremony of the SMEs here.

The total market cap of BSE SME is Rs 17,268 crore and represents companies from 15 states and 20 major sectors.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also present at the event, said the SMEs in the country provide a huge employment opportunities after agriculture and it was imperative to promote these companies.

"Government of Maharashtra is ready to create a joint working group with BSE to promote SMEs listing," Fadnavis said.

With an aim to encourage more SMEs listings Chauhan also suggested that the Maharashtra government set up a fund with a corpus of Rs 25-50 crore to invest in firms which get listed.

According to BSE chief, the government can invest Rs 1 crore or 15 per cent of the issue size, whichever is lower, of an SME which lists on the stock exchanges. This would help pull in more SMEs in the stock markets as well as generate more funds for the government.

The SME segment provides opportunity to entrepreneurs to raise equity capital for growth and expansion, and for investors to identify and invest in SMEs at an early stage.

Meant for SMEs with a paid-up capital of less than Rs 25 crore, the platform empowers them to tap into the capital markets by getting listed on the exchange without having to make any initial public offering.

As many as 33 companies originally listed on SME platform have now migrated to the main board of the BSE.