Among the presentations and fireside chats was a session with fund managers from Lion Global Investors, Amova Asset Management (formerly Nikko Asset Management), Fullerton Fund Management and AR Capital.
MAS selected all four funds to participate in its EQDP to channel capital into the Singapore equities market. The remaining five funds selected include Avanda Investment Management, JP Morgan Asset Management, BlackRock, Eastspring Investments and Manulife Investment Management. A total of $3.95 billion out of the total $5 billion EQDP fund has been placed with the nine asset managers.
Titled “EQDP is the beginning, not the end,” the discussion saw the fund managers offer their candid views on where the domestic equity markets could be headed in 2026. They were joined by SGX’s head of capital market development Chan Kum Kong and Eng & Co LLC (under PwC) director Peh Zu Hao, who was also the panel’s moderator.
When asked what would be a good indicator of success for the EQDP, the fund managers gave several suggestions. For Millicent Lai, executive director and portfolio manager at AR Capital, an influx of external capital on top of the $5 billion allocated and the emergence of quality listings will be a clear sign of success.
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“One is obviously third-party capital because we are supposed to crowd in external capital. Third-party capital comes in, not through commercial channels, not anchor programmes and some of these things. So that will be through genuine interest in Singapore equities as well,” Lai says.
“Second, quality of listings,” she continues. “Ultimately, you want to say that we can attract good quality companies.”
Quality listings
According to Lai, one can ascertain whether a company is a quality listing by looking at the number of institutional shareholders it has, the depth of research that is being conducted on the company and its stock price performance post-listing.
Lai Yeu Huan, head of Asian equity at Amova Asset Management, has an audacious goal: that all locally domiciled companies with a market capitalisation of $10 billion or less have a primary listing here.
Government-linked companies like Singapore Airlines and Keppel have chosen to list locally, as have several other foreign-headquartered large caps such as Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Holdings, which listed here ahead of Hong Kong’s return to China. However, some of the city-state’s biggest corporate names have chosen to go public overseas.
Sea, best known for being the parent company to Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform Shopee, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. Ride-hailing giant Grab Holdings made its trading debut on the Nasdaq in 2021 after completing what was then the world’s largest special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. Gaming hardware company Razer was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2017 but was taken private and delisted in 2022.
“The truth is, if you are in the US and you are like two to five million market cap, you will be lost. So, forget about it,” Yeu Huan says. One indication of success is that these US-listed companies “all come home”.
Trading liquidity
Aside from homecoming listings, he believes that improvements in trading liquidity will be key, as it shows that price discovery is happening. “Similar to this, what’s really important is you see the market growing.”
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Over 600 companies are listed locally. The country’s IPO activity in 2025 was the highest since 2019, with some $2.8 billion raised from 13 listings. In contrast, about $40.6 million of capital was raised from a mere four listings in 2024. Companies looking at listing in Singapore to tap into its market to grow will help drive share prices up, says Lai.
Kenneth Ong, portfolio manager at Lion Global Investors, wants valuations of domestic equities, now in the teens, to match regional Asean valuations and, better yet, be able to approach the Nasdaq-level of more than 30 times. This will help to attract companies to return to list at home.
“The other thing also is building industry verticals,” Ong says. “For instance, you talk about the financials, dominated by the big banks, but we also have non-bank financials that are listed in Singapore, right?”
“So, can we build these sub-sectors within the main sector? It’s about growing that hub status through the equity market. We already have it in the real economy, but growing the various sectors and broadening out in the equity market,” he continues.
SGX’s Chan says the exchange is looking at both short- and long-term indicators: “Short-term is IPO. Longer-term will be the constituents of our index changes, meaning new ideas come in, with high growth elements, [and] will find their way into the index.”
Having a “domestic bias” for locally-listed stocks is something that SGX will love to see as well, says Chan. Strong domestic support, like the investments made by the Malaysian pension fund, the Employees’ Provident Fund, into its local equities will help sustain market momentum, he adds. “If we can work towards that, the asset management industry here will fire up for sure.”
Singapore’s stock market has been on a tear ever since its government stepped up its efforts to strengthen the SGX. The EQDP was one of the recommendations made by a review group set up by MAS in August 2024. The group’s final report was released on Nov 19.
Other measures include setting up a “Value Unlock” programme to help listed companies develop their investor relations, corporate strategy and capital optimisation capabilities, as well as establishing a dual-listing bridge between SGX and Nasdaq.
The MAS and the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) announced on Jan 9 that they will be running a public consultation on proposed amendments to the Securities and Futures Act 2001 and draft regulations to facilitate dual listings on both exchanges.
Policy impact
When asked how the MAS would evaluate the measures’ effectiveness during a press conference on Nov 19, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat, who is also the central bank’s deputy chairman, says that while they will keep track of certain indicators like IPO activity, it is ultimately for investors to decide if the measures have worked out.
“The $5 billion, I think we will focus on how we can make good use of the $5 billion,” Chee says of the EQDP. “If the EQDP produces good results, good outcomes, and there’s support also from the industry, we can certainly discuss with the Ministry of Finance to see whether we can go further, but that’s something we will evaluate and discuss later.”
Singapore isn’t the only country that’s been busy trying to breathe new life into its equity markets. Countries such as Japan and South Korea have seen varying levels of success after embarking on their own value-up reforms to bolster corporate governance and transparency in their markets. Japan and South Korea’s benchmark indices, the Topix and Kospi, are up by 32.46% and 86.31% over the past year, respectively.
Reviving the stock market will not be a matter of one or two years. That was the same point made by Tan, who reminded attendees that a “market awakening is not a sprint” and that this is a long journey. “We must sustain the positive momentum we saw in 2025,” he says.
