The SME exchange, mooted by SIDBI in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), is likely to be operational in two to three months, a top official of the lending institution said.
"The SME exchange will be made operational in the next two or three months and we have already got the approval from Sebi," SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Muhnot said.
He said once the SME exchange was in place, then the small and medium scale units would be able to raise funds from the market and SIDBI would be able to provide pure equity to the companies as a viable exit option would then exist.
To help the SMEs at present, SIDBI was providing quasi equity in the form of unsecured debt with a longer repayment period.
The SME exchange would be a separate trading platform on the NSE, he said.
To help in market making, SIDBI would arrange a special fund for nominated investors aimed at to providing liquidity in the listed scrips.
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For marketing of the exchange, SIDBI would persuade the SME units with which it had business relations for listing the companies on the bourse.
Muhnot said the target was to list 10 to 15 companies each year on the exchange.
The SIDBI venture capital fund would have a corpus of Rs 600 crore which would be deployed for assistance, he said.
When asked about SIDBI's exposure to the micro-finance sector, Muhnot said that last year, the lending institution had provided Rs 800 crore to the MFIs across the country.
"This year, the exposure will be around Rs 1,000 crore," Muhnot said.
Last year, SIDBI's disbursement figure was Rs 42,000 crore. This fiscal, there would be a 25 per cent growth in disbursements, he said.
Asked about SIDBI's capital market division, he said that it might be hived off to a separate subsidiary in future.