Monday, February 19, 2007

BSE may consider new listing platform for SMEs

The Bombay Stock Exchange is open to the idea of creating a separate platform for small and medium enterprises, SMEs to tap the capital markets.
“We can always explore the possibilities (for a separate platform) for SMEs because they have a different need and one has to take that into consideration,” BSE’s CEO and managing director Rajnikant Patel told PTI.
“Can you charge the same listing fees that is charged by the national level exchanges? SMEs have small capital bases and they need differential pricing,” he said. There is a strong case for a separate trading platform for SMEs to enable them raise risk capital.
The London Stock Exchange has received a very good response for its Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for medium and small companies, where regulatory norms are diluted.
As stricter corporate governance norms were being insisted on by the national-level bourses - the BSE and the National Stock Exchange - it was increasingly becoming difficult to tap them.
Small and medium enterprises are coming in hordes to raise money from the capital market but stock exchanges cannot afford to dilute compliance norms for them, reports DNA

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