With the booming stock market mainly catering to the requirements of big companies, a study has proposed the creation of a ‘junior’ market that has both lower initial listing standards and more flexible continued listing rules. The rules in areas such as corporate governance, minimum trading volume, level of business activity and so on could be established with lower minimum standards than for the ‘senior’ market, says the study jointly done by the World Bank, rating agency Crisil and industry chamber Ficci.Such segmentation would facilitate access to capital for smaller companies and would also be helpful in addressing compliance issues. Many countries have successfully introduced two or more exchanges, different stock lists or market tiers for different-sized companies. As per the current BSE listing norm, the company should have minimum issued and paid-up equity capital of Rs 3 crore and a profit-making track record for last three years. There should be a minimum networth of Rs 20 crore. Minimum market capitalisation of the listed capital should be at least two times of the paid up capital. The company should have a dividend paying track record for the last 3 consecutive years and the minimum dividend should be at least 10 per cent.
