Bombay Stock Exchange Issues New Guidelines For SMEs To Migrate To Main Board

Under revised norms, the applicant firm should be listed on the SME platform for at least 3 years, and have 250 public shareholders before applying for a shift to the main board.

The application also requires the company, its promoters, and subsidiary companies to not be debarred by the market regulator, Sebi. 

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The Bombay Stock Exchange has issued fresh guidelines for small and medium enterprises wanting to migrate from the exchange’s SME platform to the main board. According to the new guidelines, the applicant will be required to have a net worth of at least Rs 15 crore for the last two financial years. 

As per the new norms, the applicant firm should be listed on the SME platform for at least three years. Additionally, the applicants would need to have 250 public shareholders before applying for a shift to the main board, reported PTI. 

Other requirements for the SME include the firms to have a positive operating profit for at least any two out of the three financial years and have a positive profit after tax (PAT) in the financing year when the migration application is being made to the exchange, the BSE informed in a circular. 

The applicant should also have a paid-up equity capital of more than Rs 10 crore and the market capitalisation of at least Rs 25 crore. The applicant firm should also not have received any winding-up petition given by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and shouldn’t have been on the receiving end of any regulatory action in the last three years such as trading suspension against the firm and its promoters by the exchange. The application also requires the company, its promoters, and subsidiary companies to not be debarred by the market regulator, Sebi. 

The exchange also changed the eligibility criteria for listing on the SME platform. These guidelines will be implemented from January 1, 2024, the BSE noted. So far, 464 companies have been listed on the BSE SME platform, where 181 have moved to the main board, official data revealed. Both the exchange platforms, the BSE and NSE launched platforms dedicated to SMEs in March 2012 to allow these firms to list.