SEBI getting stricter on SME IPOs: More disclosures to be enforced

Mumbai: SEBI has finally opened its eyes to the storm brewing over small and medium enterprises (SME) IPOs and their listing prices. SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch has said that SEBI is considering making more disclosure mandatory in cases of IPOs and price manipulation in SME companies.

The SEBI Chairperson has said in this matter that since the issue size and free float in SMEs are very small, they can be easily manipulated both at the IPO level and trading level. Therefore, he believes, the first step should be to mandate greater disclosures regarding risk factors. SEBI Chairperson said this while talking to women reporters on the occasion of International Women's Day celebrations.

Regarding this, he further said that SEBI has the technology to monitor price fluctuations and can also see evidence of price manipulation, some special patterns have also been found. In this matter, it has been indicated that SEBI will take strict rules, disclosures and other steps in the entire matter. SEBI is working with consultants and analyzing the data for this.

Meanwhile, the approval of mainboard IPO-draft offer documents is currently done by the capital markets regulator, while the SME-emerge IPO process, the approval process is currently done by the exchanges NSE, BSE, size of SME IPO, manipulation of stock. SEBI has adopted a strict stance at the time of listing, now it is also possible that SEBI will take over the right to approve SME IPOs.

134 out of 183 shares of BSE SME IPO declined

The BSE SME IPO index fell 1878.33 points or 3.28 per cent to 55,453.91 today with price differences across many stocks. Of the 483 stocks and shares listed on the BSE SMI platform, 186 stocks were traded today, of which 134 stocks declined. While the prices of 44 shares increased.