Seeking Higher Exposure

As an SME, what are the challenges that you have faced as far as business in general and finances in particular are concerned? 

The first key challenge was the mindset. SMEs always tend to believe that getting listed drags them into some kind of a problem rather than solution. So the mindset was a major obstacle. But as we met more and more people and officials of the Exchange, now I am very happy that we did this. Today there are various companies that are 30-40 years old but not listed and if we go for a competitive bidding then surely we score more than them due to this listing. 

As far as raising finance from the market is concerned, for SMEs and owner driven companies credibility is always an issue. But with listing we have overcome this limitation as banks and financial institutions are now taking us more seriously. Also getting right kind of people and attract good human resource is a big challenge for us but with listing that condition has undergone a sea change as people now know that it is an organized company with good credentials. You have raised around Rs 7.5 crore of capital. 

What was your experience during that fund raising? 

We have diluted 25 per cent of our total stake. This was a very different experience altogether. Issue price was Rs 66 and we got listed at Rs 69. It gives us a different high, as people from different arena begin having faith in us. In turn now we are feeling that we have a kind of moral duty towards them. 

What are the factors that you considered before going public through the BSE SME platform? 

The primary mover was the performance of the company and we always wanted to be listed and get a good exposure for our business. This SME platform offers a huge scope for a company like ours. The listing gives us visibility and makes us more compliant, which is very necessary as our kind of companies are not used to that kind of working. 

In this way the decision to approach the SME platform is helping us and in coming years we will achieve our targets and our performance will only get better. Also we always wanted to be listed on main board and also foreign exchanges. Today we are on this platform we have a plan to list on main exchange in the next two years. Lesser control and higher transparency is the paradigm on which public listing is based. 

Did you ever think about that being a disadvantage for a company like yours? 

You have to be very clear that if you want to grow, then you have to be transparent. You can’t grow by hiding your facts and figures. If you have to be content with your small business then not becoming transparent is ok. Real growth only happens if you are transparent. An ambiguous setup hinders your growth. 

Are you satisfied with what the government is doing for the SME sector? 

For us, I can say that whole government machinery is very supportive. But frankly I am not satisfied by the effort the government is making to spread awareness of this concept. In fact, in the US and China SMEs are given more importance than big companies. My advice to the government is that they should ensure that they create awareness about this platform among SMEs. 

What is the one piece of advice that you would want to give to other SMEs from your experience so far? 

Every SME have its own perception and mindset towards their working and future plan. In this I can only say that listing on the SME exchange is the best thing available to us at the current moment as this gives us the right kind of exposure and results in getting the right kind of valuation.So my advice to other SMEs is that, if somebody wants to be more organized and pre- pare for a bigger leap one should look at listing.