Top SME performers
1,098% annual returns – Eco Friendly Food Processing Ltd
465%– Channel Nine Entertainment
372% – HPC Biosciences
344%– Esteem Bio Organic Food
Rs 10,000 crore– the valuation of BSE SME listed firms crossed Rs 10,000 crore for first time in December
Twenty small and medium enterprise (SME) firms have made a beeline to list on the SME Index of the BSE Ltd.
The listings are likely to generate funds worth Rs 600 crore -Rs 00 crore. The 20 companies will be added to the existing 83 in the next two months.
The SME Index of the exchange, launched in 2012, has grown from a mere two listings to 83 now and has a market capitalisation of Rs 8,960 crore.
Ashish Chauhan, MD and CEO, BSE, told dna, “Twenty companies are in the pipeline and they will be listed in the next one-and-a-half to two months. On an average the firms have raised Rs 8 crore and the average market capitalisation of the companies is Rs 110 crore. We have conducted 350 seminars with the sectoral representatives in various cities in the last three years. The idea is that if you have a business plan, and you are disciplined, and want to share wealth with others, then we are here to support you.”
“This also tantamount to nation building as the companies after being listed become more tax compliant and transparent,” he said.
Four companies – AGI Infra, Athena Constructions, SSPN Finance, and Filtra Constructions and Engineers – have filed draft red herring prospectus in December 2014.
The SME sector is on the government radar with Arvind Panagariya, deputy chairman of the newly-formed National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), saying that SMEs need to be given due priority. ‘SME is the backbone of manufacturing. SMEs also fit appropriately in the Make in India scheme of government of India as start-ups will more need to meander in the bureaucratic maze for approvals,” an official had quoted him as saying.
The BSE — where the SME companies have already shown a stellar performance with some of the them logging up to 1,000% return in a year — has also upgraded its systems and introduced new technologies to ease trading.
In December the valuation of the BSE SME listed firms crossed the Rs 10,000 crore for the first time. At an average market-cap of about Rs 120 crore per firm, the market-capitalisation touched Rs 10,117 crore. Companies including Eco Friendly Food Processing has given 1,098% annual returns, Channel Nine Entertainment (465%), HPC Biosciences (372%) and Esteem Bio Organic Food (344%), among others. The National Sstock Exchange also has a similar SME platform called Emerge having six listings with market capitalisation of Rs 430 crore.