SME financing through public equity: review of the Indian SME exchanges

Purpose Timely access to reasonably priced financing is critical to promote and sustain small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). This study aims to examine the role of the newly constituted SME exchanges in funding the growth of Indian SME firms. The impact of obtaining public equity capital on the firm’s growth prospects, capital structure and credit profile is the focus of this paper. In addition, this study compares the cost and speed of raising capital on specialised SME exchanges to the main board. Design/methodology/approach To examine the impact of raising public equity capital, this study uses a difference-in-difference (DID) regression analysis. SMEs that raised financing on the SME exchange between 2013 and 2018 make up the treatment sample. This study uses a propensity score matching technique to find the control group from a sample of unlisted enterprises to reduce the likelihood of selection bias. Findings This study finds that SME profitability drops after an initial public offering (IPO), which is consistent with previous research. This study also discovered that after a company is listed, its total debt falls. This study also shows that after the IPO, there is no change in the borrowing costs of SME enterprises. Finally, this study finds an evidence of a decline in sales growth following the IPO, implying that the firms use the IPO money to rebalance their accounts after a period of heavy investment rather than for growth finance. Originality/value A thriving and efficient equity financing market for SMEs has the potential to establish itself as a viable alternative to the existing dominant bank financing option. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to examine the role of SME exchanges in the funding of Indian SME firms.