SMEs raise Rs 514 crore on exchanges this year

Spurred by investor interest, 39 small and medium enterprises have raised Rs 514 crore through initial public offerings so far this year, already close to the total garnered in the entire 2016.

Last year, 66 SMEs had raised Rs 540 crore through IPOs.

Experts said the huge capital-raising exercise, mainly to fund business expansion and meet working-capital requirements, can be attributed to reforms and initiatives taken by the government to encourage the SME sector.

Of the 39 companies that hit the capital markets this year, 22 have made debut on the SME platform of NSE (National Stock Exchange) and raised Rs 365 crore, while 17 companies got listed with IPOs worth Rs 149 crore on BSE's SME platform.

The companies that got listed this year are from sectors such as finance, media, infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and information technology (IT).

"SME capital market is catching up with main board market in several ways such as overwhelming investor response, larger size of IPOs, increasing number of companies tapping the market," Pantomath Capital Advisors Private Limited managing director Mahavir Lunawat said.

"We are confident this is only a foundation of alternate capital market," he added.