Poor market conditions due to a nationwide lockdown following the Covid-19 crisis is no deterrent for companies in the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment to raise money and get listed on the BSE. This, at a time when some of the larger companies have either postponed or shelved their IPO plans till market conditions improve.

Cospower Engineering, DJ Media Print and Logistics and RO Jewels were listed on the BSE during the lockdown period and even managed to raise more than ₹9.35 crore. The IPO of Nirmitee Robotics, a start-up, too got fully subscribed on the platform and the company would be raising ₹3.5 crore, according to data. Besides there are 15 more than companies in the pipeline which will get listed in the near future, BSE said.

“SME listing and start-up fund-raising on BSE have shown there is a ray of hope and investors are willing to look at small-ticket size in times of crisis,” said Ashish Chauhan, MD, CEO, BSE.

DJ Mediaprint’s public issue of 12 lakh shares — of ₹10 each for cash at a price of ₹20 apiece, aggregating to ₹2.4 crore — was subscribed about 1.83 times. The company got listed this week. According to BSE, DJ Mediaprint is the 322nd company to get listed on its SME platform. The 322 companies have so far raised ₹3,320.48 crore through the platform and their total market capitalisation stands at ₹15,737.72 crore, it added.

The stock market crashed by 34 per cent in just 22 trading sessions in the month of March.

The SME companies have a chance to migrate to the main board of stock exchanges. A feature of listing on the SME exchange is the advantage of seamlessly migrating to the main board.