February 18, 2013

Press Release No. 1

NSE organizes SME conclave to discuss opportunities on SME platform

The National Stock Exchange today organized ‘EMERGE Stakeholders Conclave’ at the R H Patil auditorium, at the NSE office in Mumbai. The conference brought together key stakeholders, for a discussion on the opportunities provided by NSE’s dedicated SME platform, EMERGE. SEBI’s Executive Director, Mr. S Ramann was the Chief Guest, while SIDBI’s Deputy MD, Mr. T R Bajalia was the Guest of Honour at the Conference. The inaugural address was delivered by the Joint MD of NSE, Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna.

The objective of the conclave was to bring together the key stakeholders to discuss new emerging possibilities on the SME platform, including different transaction structures, the profile of companies listing and appreciation of how the platform is getting positioned in the larger ecosystem of early stage risk investors, Venture capital or private equity investors and the main exchange.

Joint MD of NSE, Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna said on the occasion, “We have brought in many differentiators for the SME platform: voluntary grading of companies for higher transparency, a robust due diligence process to give confidence to informed investors and reducing the cost for issuers, to make it easier for them to list”. She said “Five companies have been approved for IPOs, of which two have already listed and are trading well’’.

While the offerings of Thejo Engineering and Veto Switchgears and Cables were oversubscribed by more than one and a half times and have been trading well, three more companies, Opal Luxury Time Products, MobME wireless solutions and VKC Credit and Forex Services have been approved for listing by NSE and are expected to announce their IPOs soon. NSE is also providing research support to these companies, to ensure high transparency and ease in decision making for investors. All the companies have been graded by CRISIL, the leading independent rating agency in India.

SEBI's Executive Director, Mr. S Ramann said, “SEBI is open to review of the SME guidelines, to make it a more thriving market place and to address the concerns of different market participants, including merchant bankers, investors and issuers’’.

SIDBI’s Deputy MD, Mr. T R Bajalia said, “Participation of institutional investors and ensuring that issuers follow high governance standards, will ensure the long term success of the SME platforms. SIDBI will be happy to provide corpus support to alternate investment funds, set up by Professional fund managers for the development and growth of SMEs”.

There was good participation in the Conclave from a wide spectrum of market representatives, including angel firms, VC funds, wealth management companies and merchant bankers. Speakers at the conference included senior officials from SIDBI venture capital, India Infoline, O3 Capital, IDBI capital markets, Mumbai angels, Prabhudas Lilladhar, ASK Wealth Management, Matrix Partners, Seed Fund, and ICICI securities.