Drawing secondary listings to SGX may not move the needle much, but every little bit helps
AMONG the recent slew of proposals unveiled to boost the attractiveness of the local bourse to investors and companies was one relating to secondary listings.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) proposes aligning disclosure requirements with baseline international disclosure standards, which are already commonly adopted by most established markets, including Singapore.
Specifically, these include the International Disclosure Standards for Cross-Border Offerings and Initial Listings by Foreign Issuers, as issued by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (Iosco).
In essence, these standards allow issuers who already have primary listings elsewhere to use the same prospectuses with minimal adaptation for their secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) – a change which simplifies disclosure requirements.
Market players are in favour of the proposal, saying it will attract more companies from varied sectors, thus offering more choice to investors.
An SGX spokesperson reiterates the point: 'As an international listing venue, our role is to provide companies with seamless and broad access to capital at every stage of their growth.'
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For companies with international operations – especially those active in South-east Asia and the broader region – a secondary listing in Singapore offers a compelling opportunity to tap into the deep pools of global capital here, to broaden and diversify their investor base, and to elevate their visibility in a trusted financial hub, SGX added.
The spokesperson noted: 'We have been actively engaging companies and see growing interest from firms looking to use Singapore as a launchpad to expand their global and regional presence.'
Market sources say that sizeable firms in the tech, healthcare and new-energy sectors are eyeing Singapore as a possible destination for a secondary listing. Their market capitalisation ranges from over S$700 million to over S$1 billion.
At these market capitalisation amounts, the new joiners would be on par with the likes of steel fabricator BRC Asia and property and hotel player OUE, in terms of market sizes.
Clifford Lee, DBS' global head of investment banking, said these listings help 'diversify our equity market beyond the local bank-Reit core, to include growth areas like technology and healthcare.'
He noted that 'this could trigger a flywheel effect, under which fund managers are incentivised to develop Singapore market strategies, thus boosting trading volumes and, as a result, attracting more listings. Dual-listed stocks allow Asian investors to deal in Singapore hours and Singapore dollars, reducing foreign exchange and time-zone friction, further unlocking regional liquidity pools'.
The SGX spokesperson told The Business Times that there is a good pipeline of issuers looking at secondary listings on SGX. 'We are also in active discussion with many potential listing aspirants on their listing plans on SGX.'
For companies eyeing a secondary listing in an alternative market, the proposed rule changes are likely to give them a nudge in the right direction.
At the moment, the number of secondary listings – 28 – is a small fraction of the approximately 600 listings on SGX's mainboard and Catalist.
But they do have name recognition. Among the 28 are several long-time secondary listings, including DFI Retail, Hongkong Land, Mandarin Oriental and Jardine Matheson, all of which are part of Hong Kong's Jardine Group.
There are also relatively new – but well-known – names such as the New York Stock Exchange-listed Nio, a Chinese manufacturer of premium smart electric vehicles, and private healthcare service provider IHH Healthcare.
To James Leong, the chief executive officer of trading firm Grasshopper Asia, a company which opts for a secondary listing can 'gain access to new capital pools, increase brand recognition and generally increase liquidity and visibility for the stock. For the market, it provides interesting new products that investors may lack'.
One of the recent secondary listings on SGX is PC Partner Group, which has its primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It joined SGX's mainboard last November.
The global computer electronics player relocated its headquarters to Singapore 'to support and manage the group's continued business growth in South-east Asia and other regions', which points to Singapore's ability to attract capital.
The group added that it plans to leverage Singapore's advantages as a global hub of innovation and technology and to expand into the region.
Whether more such companies will follow in PC Partners' path is the question, notwithstanding reports that some interested candidates are waiting in the wings.
Grasshopper's Leong said: 'While there are definitely companies that would be interested, the decisions are typically contingent on costs and other opportunities – that is, can other markets offer the same value?'
He notes that there are many who are still heading to Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange, 'because of the probability of higher valuations that are possible and the immense liquidity in US markets'.
But the US market is not meant for the faint-hearted, with the many companies there clamouring for investor attention.
Given the turmoil in the markets caused by the chop-and-change strategy of US President Donald Trump, it is possible that many candidates in the region may rethink their plans and look closer to home instead.
If Singapore can capture a few more listings, be they secondary or primary listings, it cannot hurt. Every little bit helps in creating a more vibrant marketplace for investors.
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Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
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Shelves at the local ShopRite grocery store. Spring season means more imported fresh fruit from Latin American markets at relatively cheap prices. PHOTO: GRACE NG Commentary How a Singaporean in the US is grappling with pricey Hainanese chicken rice under Trump's tariffs – There is one catastrophic scenario I worry about with US President Donald Trump's second term in office: bad food. I had read about the unimpressive cuisine associated with Mr Trump's establishments, from Thanksgiving platters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that resembled frozen TV dinners to gala dishes deemed worse than budget airline food by crypto investors in the President's meme coin. But I was not chuckling during a recent meal at a cafeteria in Pennsylvania, which served pale yellow turds. 'Eggs,' pronounced the server. As I stared in confusion, he whispered: 'Powdered eggs with some tofu. Good stuff – soybeans made in the USA .' This unpalatable swop of protein sources was accepted without controversy – possibly because I was attending an Asian church retreat, where tolerance for tofu and austerity is not in short supply. Expectations of egg substitution may also have been baked into consumers' expectations, since egg prices in the US have risen about 49 per cent in one year and could get nudged up further by tariffs on imports from markets such as Brazil, Mexico and Turkey. But it was also a sign that all of us, from the sheepish server to second-generation Asian-Americans and relative newcomers such as myself, have accepted that higher tariffs and wider price substitution are an unavoidable part of our foreseeable future. Price substitution, as I explained to my two little kids, inevitably takes place when the price of Hainanese chicken rice goes up by about US$3 (S$3.90) to US$15.99 on my food delivery app. So now, instead of that beloved Singaporean dish, we are ordering invented-in-America General Tso chicken with grown-in-America white rice for US$11.99, which increased in price by only $1. Alas, the only lesson learnt about economic trade-offs was this: saving US$4 was not worth the wailing and flailing that ensued. Taking stock of tariffs So we set off for the nearby Asian grocery store, which is the closest to a Sheng Siong supermarket I can find, to stock up on Prima Taste Fragrant Chicken Rice Paste for US$8.99 per packet. We were struck by the rows of unevenly empty shelves that reflect the tariff scenario analyses hoarders before me had undertaken. Hong Kong love letter rolls, Chengdu hotpot paste and Want Want rice crackers were wiped out. 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PHOTO: AFP Reinvention to cope with change The ingenuity of the YouTube creators reminded me that the sanest response to unpredictable tariffs may be to train our energies not just on price substitution, but also on reinventing ways to meet immutable consumer priorities: cheap goods, speedy access, diverse choices and personalised offerings. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying: 'People always ask me what's going to change. But what's more important is what's not going to change. 'You can never imagine a world in which consumers don't want cheap prices, fast shipping and big selection. It's impossible to imagine a world where people don't want that. Because of that, you can put so much confidence into investing in those things, knowing they'll always be relevant in the future.' One can only hope that entrepreneurs, communities and families can leverage new ideas, tools and technologies fast enough to outpace price shocks. I am holding my breath on when the tariff turmoil will settle. But in a nod to what is unchanging – our love of Singaporean food – I will be learning how to make decent chicken rice and kaya with egg substitutes. Grace Ng is a Singaporean writer in New Jersey and a former Straits Times China correspondent. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Straits Times
Qantas sheds Jetstar Asia to protect lead in core domestic Australian market
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Meanwhile, Qantas has reaped growing domestic profits as the airline and Virgin were both more 'disciplined' and abandoned their all-out war over capacity and prices, he told The Straits Times. 'Closing Jetstar Asia is a sensible decision that will help Jetstar to become more profitable,' he said. Jetstar is Qantas's low-cost domestic subsidiary. Qantas said its domestic profit margin was 17 per cent at its half-yearly results in February, compared with 8 per cent for international and freight. Its move is seen as an attempt to refocus on Australia, as Virgin Australia relists as a public company on June 24, five years after it was taken over by Bain Capital. Mr Ian Thomas, an aviation expert from Sydney-based CAPA Consulting, told ST that Qantas was 'tying off loose ends' as it faced potential increased competition from Virgin. 'Within Australia, Virgin's refloating has put some pressure on Qantas internally,' he said. Virgin Australia had a domestic market share of 35 per cent as at December 2024, compared with Qantas' 63.6 per cent (including Jetstar), according to a Feb 18 report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 'Qantas has never really invested the amount of money it needed to establish (Jetstar Asia) on a viable basis. It really didn't have the fleet size,' Mr Thomas added. He said Qantas had been reluctant to properly invest in the competitive low-cost Asian market, which left (Jetstar Asia) struggling against bigger players such as Scoot, the low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines, which maintains a fleet of about 50 jets including high-capacity long-haul Boeing Dreamliners. In contrast, Jetstar Asia operates 13 medium-capacity single-aisle Airbus jets. Nine of these A320 jets are slated for Jetstar's for use in Australia and New Zealand, while four will be used on routes servicing mining workers in Western Australia. 'Qantas has fantastic demand domestically but not enough aircraft,' Professor Merkert noted. 'It is not easy to get new aircraft at the moment. The easiest way to do it is for Qantas to redeploy assets that it already has in the fleet.' Qantas said on June 11 the decision to shut down Jetstar Asia after July 31 stems from escalating supplier costs, airport fees and aviation charges in recent years amid intensifying competition and growing capacity, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic. Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully told reporters on June 11 that Jetstar Asia has only been profitable for six years in its two decades operating out of Singapore since 2004. The intra-Asia carrier was expecting to post an underlying loss of A$35 million (S$29.3 million) before interest and tax in the financial year ending June 30. 'Qantas has much bigger (profit) margins in Australia. It would have been more appropriate to use that capital in the Australian domestic market, which it is now proposing to do,' Professor Greg Bamber, an aviation specialist from Monash University, told ST. 'It was probably a mistake for Qantas to have invested in Jetstar Asia in the first place.' He said abandoning the carrier would enable Qantas to focus on reaping profits from routes serving the 'golden triangle' – the east-coast cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane where Australia's vast population is centred. These three cities offer massive demand for travel, but with no high-speed rail to connect them. The move by Qantas also signals a change of direction under group chief executive Vanessa Hudson, who was formerly chief financial officer. She took over in 2023, ending the 15-year reign of Alan Joyce. Mr Joyce was the head of Jetstar when it announced plans to launch Jetstar Asia in 2004. Jetstar Asia marked the first of Qantas's ventures aimed at low-cost travellers in Asia. The airline later launched Jetstar Pacific, operating in Vietnam, but later ended its involvement in the venture. It also launched Jetstar Japan, which some analysts viewed as a more successful model than Jetstar Asia because it involves a partnership with a local carrier, Japan Airlines. Despite the closure of Jetstar Asia, Jetstar will continue to fly from Australia into Asia, including to Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea. It is also looking to return flying to the Philippines after ending its connection there about a decade ago. Ms Hudson, unlike Mr Joyce, never headed Jetstar – and is clearly willing to shed non-performing legacy aspects of her predecessor's era. 'Alan Joyce cut his teeth in Jetstar and had an affinity with its operations,' Mr Thomas said. 'Vanessa Hudson, being the new broom, is going through their strengths and weaknesses. She is reviewing everything and has decided to draw a red pen through Jetstar Asia.' Jonathan Pearlman writes about Australia and the Pacific for The Straits Times. Based in Sydney, he explains matters on Australia and the Pacific to readers outside the Oceania region. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.


International Business Times
13 hours ago
- International Business Times
Asian Markets Edge Higher as Trade Talks Show Progress, Inflation Data in Focus
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