Sebi's go ahead to NSE to launch Social Stock Exchange

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday said that it has received final approval from markets regulator Sebi to launch a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) as a separate segment on its platform. The final clearance was received on February 22, the exchange said in a statement.

The Social Stock Exchange segment will provide new avenue for social enterprises to finance social initiatives, provide them visibility and bring in increased transparency in fund mobilisation and utilisation by social enterprises.

"To bring in awareness, we have been conducting various events and hand-holding social enterprises currently at various stages of onboarding on the exchange," NSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said.

Chauhan also appealed to social enterprises to get in touch with the NSE to understand the mechanism and benefits of registering and listing on the social stock exchange segment.

Under the rules, any social enterprise, Non-Profit Organization (NPOs), or For-Profit Social Enterprise (FPE), that establishes its primacy of social intent can get listed in SSE segment.

For eligible NPOs, the preliminary step for the onboarding process will include the completion of the registration on the Social Stock Exchange segment.

Post listing, NPOs can initiate the fund mobilization process by the issuance of instruments such as Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) through a public issue or private placement.

As per the current regulations, the minimum issue size will be Rs 1 crore and the minimum application size for subscription will be Rs 2 lakh for ZCZP issuance.

For FPE, the process of issuing and listing of securities would also remain the same as applicable for the issue and listing of securities under the extant processes of the exchange. The extant process will broadly be based on eligibility criteria for the main board, SME Platform, or innovators growth platform, as applicable in addition to the criteria provided to be eligible as Social Enterprises.

(With inputs from PTI)

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