The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, on Tuesday, launched ‘EMERGE’, a dedicated NSE platform for emerging corporates.
EMERGE is expected to help thousands of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to raise capital from institutional investors and high networth individuals.
The first company that opened its IPO on EMERGE, Chennai-based Thejo Engineering, got listed on the platform with the ceremonial ring at the event. The stock closed at Rs 403 against the issue price of Rs 402.
Making his first appearance at a public function in the capital after taking charge as Finance Minister Chidambaram asked the stock exchanges to make “extra effort” to bring SMEs into the market and help them raise capital.
On Earlier efforts
Extra efforts should also be made by merchant bankers and other players to make a success of the platform, he said.
He noted that the earlier attempts to launch a dedicated SME platform had yielded little results. Even for this attempt (‘EMERGE’) it had taken four years before the first company — Thejo Engineering — was listed, Chidambaram said.
“It’s not easy to bring SMEs to exchange-traded platforms. But it is important for us to send a message that we want SMEs to grow out of their small and medium size,” he said, adding that one way to grow is to raise capital.
Reeling out statistics, he said that there were 3.11 crore enterprises which qualify as SMEs They contribute 45 per cent of industrial output and eight per cent to GDP.
“We should take encouragement that there are entrepreneurs who are willing to come to the market to grow. We should have at least a few thousand companies listed in this platform,” he said.
Besides the NSE’s EMERGE, the other dedicated SME platform is with the BSE where seven entities are already listed.