Chennai – A 1-Day Workshop organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Indian Angel Network (IAN) in Chennai today introduced alternate finance options for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

In his keynote address, Mr S Chandramohan, Convenor, Panel on Economic Affairs & Taxation, CII Tamil Nadu & Chief Financial Officer, TAFE Ltd, said that increase in competition together with demand for quaity at best prices prompted the SMEs to introduce new product development methods with modern technology. Hence, availability of finance is utmost importance for the survival of SME, he said. This workshop on Growth and Finance Options will create more awareness amongst the SMEs on alternative finance options for their growth, he further said.

“This workshop is expected to bridge the gap between SMEs and equity investors including private equity funds, which have recently grown in India,” says Mr Bruno Valanzuolo, Chief Technical Advisor of the Consolidated Project, UNIDO. “In addition to independent players, major financial institutions such as ICICI have also recently established equity funds for SMEs. However, very few promoters of SMEs have the appropriate information and knowledge to approach such equity investors.”

While SMEs are considered to be key players in economic development in India, access to finance continues to be a major challenge for their growth. As part of the Consolidated Project for SME Development in India (“Consolidated Project”), UNIDO, together with IVCA and IAN developed a training programme for SMEs on alternative finance options, he further said.

The training programme consists of three modules:

• Training Module I: Growth and Finance Options
• Training Module II: Private Equity Finance
• Training Module III: Mentoring and Presentations to Potential Investors

The workshop in Chennai is the first Module I training and participating SMEs are expected to become more aware of the importance of growth and alternative finance options beyond traditional bank loans. Module II will concentrate specifically on private equity funding process. Growing SMEs will be selected from Module II to participate in mentoring and presentation sessions in Module III. Mentors from investors’ community will assist SMEs to develop business plans for the presentation to potential investors.

CII and UNIDO, the MoU Partners, have been working closely for the development of SMEs in India. CII & UNIDO would provide support for SMEs under ‘FinExe’ – a Finance Excellence initiative for SMEs in identifying various funding options and also help them in preparing project proposals for large organisations said Mr Sujith Haridas, Regional Director, CII, Southern Region in his Opening Remarks.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=gUysn1z2lKX2Dh+Ie0nbGhjEP3w0aq0z65kyVC1dK+XiCQ0qWP1K3qSB+kBB9jcZobZwlO3TgPABYLmjSJf/wKDPq5G0OqO0AGHDQUEqhWX2V6xTwGZKhZfu0SJUMvt+5j6Fuu7wuBFhUN9VxC6YXQ==

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