Smaller bourses eye merger for net worth

The new changes,the outcome of the Bimal Jalan Committee on Stock Exchanges,state that a stock exchange should have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore and existing exchanges would be given three years to comply. The net worth of the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange currently stands at Rs 54 crore,and that of Vadodara Stock Exchange is in the range of Rs 20-50 crore.

Hemantsinh Jhala,chairman of Ahmedabad Stock Exchange,said the regional stock exchanges have proposed a merger strategy butwould need to be cleared by Sebi. Merger will increase our collective net worth but term and condition of such a merger will have to be sorted out,which may not be easy given varying strength of different regional stock exchanges, said Jhala.