Start-ups may soon get to list directly overseas: FinMin

Indian start-ups will soon be able to list directly in India and overseas as the government is at a fairly advanced stage of introducing the scheme.

"You will be expecting to hear about this soon," said Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in Ministry of Finance.

"Lots of company do want to list both in India and abroad at the same time. We welcome the suggestion that could make the process more seamless" he said at an interactive session on 'Budget & Beyond' with professionals from asset management, wealth advisory, tax consultancy and other related industry at NITI Aayog here.

Chakraborty was answering a query by Softbank India Country Head Manoj Kohli who said: "We are fully committed to bringing capital in India. We are also in believe that India's growth at 8 per cent can be sustained only with large-scale international funding coming into India. A growth of 8 per cent is important to create 15 million jobs a year."

Several start-ups are planning to opt for an overseas direct listing. The plan is to raise capital of four to five billion dollars from markets in London and New York.

China has listed 150 companies overseas for 100 billion dollars which is worth one trillion dollars in Nasdaq NYSE. A framework to list on overseas bourses could help Indian start-ups list in a jurisdiction of their choice.

Most e-commerce companies prefer a listing on Nasdaq, a platform for technology companies in the United States, as it fetches better valuations.