SIDBI to launch stock market for MSME

Tiruchirapalli, Feb 24: The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has proposed to establish an exclusive stock exchange for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in order to mobilize additional capital for them, SIDBI Chairman and MD R M Malla said.

Addressing a press conference here last night, Mr Malla said that they had already initiated steps towards this and formally submit an application with SEBI, seeking its clearance. The proposed stock exchange for MSME would be established with the help of National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Infrastructure Leasing Financial Services (ILFS), he added.

He said once this proposal was materialized, the MSME sector of the country would attract a lot of domestic and foreign equity as well as fresh investments.

The SIDBI also approached the RBI for its permission to start a new outfit in the name of assert reconstruction company with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore. The proposed company would envisage reduction of NPA of various banks on account of MSMEs. He said that 10 to 12 commercial and Public Sector banks had agreed to join hands with SIDBI, for setting up the proposed company. The proposed company's headquarters would be located at Mumbai and the operations would be expanded to all State capitals in the country in a phased manner, he added.

Mr Malla pointed out that they had convened a meeting involving micro financial institutions, LIC and GIC and others recently at Hyderabad and asked them to add some value added micro finances to help the MSMEs.

SIDBI asked all other banks in the country not to insist any collateral security from the MSME applications, for the trm loans upto Rs 50 lakh, he added. SIDBI used to give 75 per cent guarantee to the men entrepreneurs and 80 per cent guarantee to women entrepreneurs under the credit guarantee fund scheme, he added.

He said they had covered almost all the financial institutions in the country under the credit guarantee scheme and would also cover the State Financial institutions soon.

He said that there were 69 branches all over the country and four more would be opened before the end of next month.

Earlier, participating in the inaugural function of a new branch of SIDBI, Mr Malla said they had earmarked a sum of Rs 500 crore for venture capital, of which they had disbursed already Rs 250 crore as equity to the MSMEs.

Mr Malla informed that the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had expressed keen interest in lending more to MSME sector and in fact he wanted atleast 20 per cent annual growth in providing financial assistance to the sector. By sanctioning Rs one crore SIDBI was ready to help various NGOs, trusts and other like minded service organisations to start non banking financial companies for carrying out micro finance activities in the rural areas, he added.

He said in the last five years they had extended Rs 13,500 crore as micro credit to 45 lakh benificiaries.

He said SIDBI was ready to extend its financial assistance for setting up a skill development centre for welding technology in and around Tiruchirapalli under its skill development programme.

In his address SIDBI's Deputy Managing Director Rakesh Rewari pointed out that SIDBI was continuously expanding its outreach during the past two years by opening more and more branches across the country. They presently cater to various financial needs of SME sector in South, through a network of 13 branches.

He said two more branches would be opened at Calicut in Kerala and Balanagar in Andhra Pradesh before February end.

Tiruchirapalli district Tiny and Small scale Industries Association President S Sreedharan in his address appealed to the CMD of the SIDBI that the bank should come forward for establishing a micro industrial estate in and around Tiruchirapalli as there was good potential for micro development activities in this region.

In his address National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, Director M Chidambaram offered its technical and knowledge based support towards SIDBI's efforts for financing the MSME sector.

UNI