11 October 2022
Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday asked small businesses to explore the idea of “dual listing” to expand their sources of raising capital.
Speaking at an event of the BSE’s SME platform, the minister said small companies have the option to list on the SME platform of the leading stock exchanges, part from the Gift City in Gandhinagar.
“Possibly SMEs can look at the International Financial Services Centre at the Gift City. We also need to see whether we can encourage some of these companies to explore getting listed through the Gift City platform or a dual listing between Mumbai and the Gift City,” he said. Larger companies seeking to list overseas can also explore such an option as well, he added.
The BSE’s SME platform, which was created in 2012 following Sebi stipulations, saw the listing of eight companies on Monday. With this, the number of firms to have been listed on the SME platform has exceeded 400. Interestingly, as many as 152 of these companies have now migrated to the main board. The 394 companies listed on the BSE SME Platform have raised a `4,263 crore from the market and their total market capitalisation as of October 7 was `60,000 crore. BSE is the leader in this segment with a market share of 60%.
Commenting on the startup eco-system, Goyal said India is already home to over 100 unicorns and another 70-80 startups are on the verge of turning into unicorns. The BSE, he added, should set up an interface with the startup ecosystem.
