The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has reported a five-fold jump in its initial public offering (IPO) market capitalisation for 2010, compared to 2009.
SGX welcomed 39 new IPOs in 2010, raising S$11 billion (US$8.6 billion) and expanding the market capitalisation on its SGX Mainboard and Catalist small business platform by S$51 billion (US$40 billion). This compares with 29 IPOs in 2009, raising S$10.4 billion (US$8.17 billion) in 2009.
The latest round of IPOs brings the total market capitalisation on the venue to S$902 billion (US$709 billion). Some of the high-profile IPOs in 2010 include home-grown airline TigerAirways, European offshore designer and ship-builder STV OSV Holdings, the world's largest real estate IPO – Global Logistic Properties and the world's largest Sharia-compliant real estate investment trust (REIT), Sabana Shari'ah REIT, among others. The year also saw the secondary listings of financial services company Prudential and shipping firm Golden Ocean Group adding S$29 billion (US$22.8 billion) to SGX's market capitalisation.
“Our sector strengths in maritime and offshore, REITs and property trusts, resources and commodities, resonate well with many companies seeking expansion into Asia,” said Lawrence Wong, head of listings, SGX. “In particular, the number of large listings from Asia and Europe expanded the breadth and depth of our marketplace.”
As of end of year 2010, SGX had a total of 782 listed companies, of which 321 companies were from overseas, hailing from China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, India and Europe. These accounted for more than 40% of SGX's listed companies, and about 47% of the capitalisation of the market.
In addition, on 22 October 2010, SGX launched the quotation and trading of 19 Asian depositary receipts (ADRs) on its GlobalQuote board, in collaboration with trading venue Nasdaq OMX. Investors can now trade these ADRs, which represent major US-listed Chinese companies, in the Asian time zone. SGX has stated that it will continue to add to its suite of ADRs to offer customers broader investment opportunities.
The venue has also set a launch date for its new low-latency trading platform SGX Reach, which is scheduled to go live on 15 August 2011.
The firm is currently working on a merger with the Australian Securities Exchange, which if successful would create the fifth-largest exchange group in the world by market capitalisation, at approximately US$12.3 billion.