Bangalore: 'Emerge’, National Stock Exchange's (NSE) dedicated small and medium enterprises (SME) platform was launched by Finance minister P Chidambaram.

As mentioned in Hindustan Times, Finance Minister, during the launch said, "This initiative should help micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) to expand into small, medium and large companies by raising capital from the market and growing along with the economy. It's not easy to bring MSMEs on exchange platforms due to their fear of regulatory mechanism and the unknown. From a pool of 3.1 crore MSMEs, only a few thousand would list."

The new SME platform was launched with ceremonial ringing of a bell. Thejo Engineering became the first company to be listed on Emerge. The Finance Minister has asked stakeholders and market players to provide an encouraging support to MSMEs that would appear in listing.

Ravi Narain, managing director & CEO, NSE. Said that he does not want to rush at this stage and instead wants to ensure that quality SMEs come up with IPOs.

The first company to be listed, Chennai-based Thejo Engineering has an annual turnover of 118 crore and is dedicated towards manufacturing and services.  It hopes that this listing on Emerge will help them in scaling up their operation. The merchant bankers who want to list themselves would have to ensure market making for a period of three years from the initial public offering (IPO).