September 18, 2012
Press Release No. 1
NSE launches SME operations
The National Stock Exchange today launched operations on its dedicated SME platform “EMERGE’’. The launch of operations was done at the hands of honorable Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram. Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Mr. U K Sinha was the guest of honour at the event, held in the capital.
The first company which opened its IPO on EMERGE, Thejo Engineering listed on the platform, with the ceremonial ring at the event.
NSE’s SME platform EMERGE symbolises the aspirations of a large number of entrepreneurs, actively participating in the India growth story and NSE has adopted the best global practices followed across the world, to establish a credible and efficient Exchange for such entrepreneurs and Emerging Enterprises.
Chairman, SEBI, Mr. U K Sinha said “Ensuring success of the SME platforms is one of our top priorities. We have worked out regulations for the SME platform, keeping in mind that this is a market only for informed investors. Therefore a higher investment threshold has been kept, so that only investors, who have the understanding and the financial strength to invest, come in to the SME platform.”
MD and CEO of NSE, Mr. Ravi Narain said "We are keen that it becomes a viable and more importantly, a sustainable platform for India’s best emerging businesses to raise capital from informed investors. Globally, junior platforms have succeeded by coordinated efforts of exchanges, merchant bankers and investors including angel investors, venture capital and private equity community. We have engaged extensively with this eco system in India and have tried to understand their expectations.”
Based on investor feedback, NSE has put in place a strong and credible admission process for listing on EMERGE. These processes, including third party diligence, will provide confidence to investors, while NSE’s handholding of SME entrepreneurs will give confidence to the emerging companies.
Research support to listed issuers and options of alternate trading options are being offered to help improve liquidity and secondary trading interest.
Mr. Ravi Narain further said “we are also collaborating with the risk investor community and other Institutions to create an electronic platform to improve investment efficiency in early stage and start up enterprises”.
For this purpose, NSE has developed a community portal called India venture board or IVB. It is an electronic market place, for increasing primary and secondary flow of venture capital and private equity investments in India, by connecting various stakeholders.
Joint MD of NSE, Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna said “We have tried to differentiate our offering for SME’s , who want to raise capital by focusing on reducing costs for the emerging companies, both in the run up to their listing and in the post listing phase. This will give more confidence to investors to invest in the companies, which have good growth potential and high standards of corporate governance.”
NSE is also trying to create awareness about the role of “nominated investors” on the SME platform. These investors provide support to merchant bankers for their underwriting and market making obligations. The nominated investor could be a QIB or a VC or PE fund. In the case of Thejo engineering, SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd has played the role of a nominated investor to back IDBI capital, the merchant banker for the issue.
Thejo engineering, a profitable Chennai based company has done a very successful IPO, earlier this month, which was oversubscribed by 1.53 times. The retail category was oversubscribed by 2.61 times and investors from as many as 14 States, from all over the country, participated in the IPO. The QIB (qualified institutional buyer) category was also fully subscribed. The total number of shares offered was 4.72 lakh shares and bids were received for 7.23 lakh shares.
Press Release No. 2
Clarification by BEML Limited
Substantial increase in trading volumes has been observed in BEML Limited.
The Exchange, in order to ensure that investors have latest relevant information about the company and to inform the market place so that the interest of the investors is safeguarded, had written to the company.
BEML Limited has vide its letter inter-alia stated, "We hereby inform that there is no such specific events/information from Company's side".