BSE wakes up, tightens IT listing norms

MUMBAI, OCT 15: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has finally woken up and tightened the listing norms of information technology (IT) compa...

MUMBAI, OCT 15: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has finally woken up and tightened the listing norms of information technology (IT) companies. The tightening of the norms has come after many IT companies have floated issues and raised money from the public.

The BSE has now said listing will be done in the case of companies in high technology areas such as IT, internet, E-commerce and telecommunication provided the income from the such activity is not less than 90 per cent of total income during the three immediately preceding years.

The minimum post-issue paid up equity capital should be Rs five crore and the minimum market capitalisation should be Rs 50 crore, the BSE said in a statement here today.

Many finance companies had planned to come out with issues by changing their name to reflect the infotech business. Merchant bankers said at least two dozen shady finance companies have planned public issues by claiming that they are IT companies. “It’s easy for shady promoters… just change the name with an infotech tag. There is huge demand for IT shares now,” said a broker.

Sebi had recently tightened the norms for such companies by insisting that they should have distributable profit for three out of five years from the activity suggested by their name.

Consider the example of Helios & Matheson Information Technologies (HMIT) which has planned a public issue. The IT activity of this firm contributes around 78 per cent to the total revenue. HMIT was earlier known as Express Financial Exchange Ltd which diversified into information technology in 1994.

The spurt in IT shares on the stock markets is attracting promoters to float issues through this route. Experts feels that if the regulator SEBI and stock exchanges are not careful, yet another scam will be created and investors will suffer once again.