Equity capital markets underwriting fees contributed to this decline, totalling US$11.8 million ($15.9 million), 36% down y-o-y. Similarly, advisory fees earned from completed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions are down 74% compared to 2023 at a total of US$28.3 million ($38.3 million).
However, these declining trends were countered by debt capital market fees which grew by 3% to US$20.0 million ($27.0 million). Syndicated lending fees also saw an 86% increase reaching US$125.6 million within the first quarter of this year.
On the whole, DBS Group Holdings is leading in Singapore’s investment banking fee league table, taking up a 6.7% share of the total fee pool at US$12.4 million ($16.8 million).
LSEG indicated that the value of announced M&A transactions with Singapore involvement hit US$15.7 billion ($21.2 billion), a 5.5.% decline y-o-y. This marks a record low start to a year since 2018.
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This follows a 38.3% fall in target Singapore M&A which reached US$2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) this year. Domestic M&A similarly shed 52.7% to US$1.0 billion on the year. Inbound M&A activity hit US$1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) , declining 20.1% from the same period last year, while outbound M&A fell by 49.0% to US$5.0 billion ($6.8 billion) worth of announced deals — the lowest in six years.
Looking from an industry standpoint, Consumer Products and Services was the most successful sector involving Singapore, contributing 25.8% of M&A activity valued at $US4.0 billion ($5.4 billion). This marks a six-fold increase as compared to the same period in 2023.
Within the top three, industrials and financials accounted for 14.6% and 14.0% market share respectively. High technology secured the highest number of deals, holding 8.5% market share at $US1.3 billion ($1.8 billion), a 42.5% from last year.
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Overall, Bank of America securities led the Singapore-involved announced M&A league tables, securing 10.64% market share worth US$1.67 billion ($2.25 billion) in related deal value.
Fees generated by Singapore equity and equity-related issuance kicked off the year with a slow start, raising US$490.4 million ($662.97 million) in the first quarter, a 54.2% decline compared to 2023.
Singapore-domiciled companies raised US$458.95 million ($620.45 million) via follow-on offerings, a steep 40.1% fall from the same period a year ago.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) by Singapore companies reached a total of US$31.45 million so far, signalling a 31.8% increase. Within this group, the Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine was noted to raise US$19.4 million ($26.2 million) in its Catalist listing, representing the biggest Singaporean-issued IPO in 2024.
Meanwhile, Singaporean issuers within the Real Estate sector shed 13.0% to US$238.2 million ($322.1 million) in proceeds, contributing 48.6% of the ECM market share.
In debt capital markets, LSEG reports that primary bond offerings fell by 6.9% in proceeds, amounting to US$6.7 billion ($9.05 billion) raised so far this year.
Singapore-owned companies within the Financials sector accounted for 52.0% market share at US$3.5 billion ($4.7 billion), marking a 28.6% decline.
Environmental, social and governance-related (ESG) bonds from Singaporean issuers secured four bond offerings valued at US$1.1 billion ($1.5 billion), making up 16% of the total Singapore-issued bond process thus far.
LSEG concludes that the Singapore-domiciled bonds underwriting table is led by DBS with US$1.14 million ($1.89 million) in related proceeds, accounting for 16.8% market share.
