The Singapore market put up with yet another busy year of delistings, but with better certainty over interest rates, deferred and new listings are on the way
The Singapore market may be one of the top regional performers this year, with the Straits Times Index hitting 17-year highs. However, moribund listing activity and the continuing march of delistings at the same steady pace seen in the last few years have put a dampener on the bourse.
In 1H2024, there was only one IPO. Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine Holdings (SAM) listed on the Catalist board on Feb 16 at an issue price of 23 cents. On its first day of trading, the counter opened at 19.5 cents down 15.2% from its listing price, before closing at 19 cents. Its share price has plunged since then. As at Dec 10, shares in SAM closed at 5.8 cents, down about 75% from its issue price.
Loss-making SAM, a provider of proton therapy services, would mark the end of the year with the ignominy of having its external auditor issue a disclaimer of opinion. Besides ongoing concerns, the auditors have issues with how SAM’s operating assets are valued and impairments made. On Dec 12, the company announced it had formed a strategic review committee to address the concerns.
2H2024 saw more listing activity, although it was on the Catalist board. During this period, three companies joined the exchange: commercial interior decoration and engineering company Attika Group, F&B retail operator Food Innovators Holdings and karaoke operator Goodwill Entertainment Holding.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) saw two secondary listings from computer electronics manufacturer PC Partner Group and Chinese bar operator Helens International Holdings. Both companies have their primary listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX).
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In total, 2024 saw six new listings on the SGX, compared to 20 delistings (See Tables 1 and 2). In 2023, there were six new listings, with only two — Niks Professional and Sheffield Green — having public tranches. The list excludes 17Live, Singapore’s first listing via spac.
The 20 companies were delisted for a variety of reasons and via different means. Companies like TEE International failed to meet listing requirements, while other companies like RE&S were bought out by private equity firms. Second Chance Properties was privatised by its chairman, while Best World International had delisted by way of a selective capital reduction.
Several companies, which did not perform well, were forced to liquidate and eventually delist. Due to the lack of financial resources, they could not make an exit offer to shareholders like KTL Global .
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Several other companies have also announced their intention to delist but have yet to complete the process. These include Halcyon Agri, SMI Vantage, Silverlake Axis , Avarga, Dyna-Mac and, most recently, Hai Leck Holdings and TalkMed Group.
Medical group Tamarind Health, with the backing of investors including Temasek unit 65 Equity Partners, is offering 45.6 cents per share to privatise cancer specialist TalkMed Group, valuing the company at more than $606 million. As part of its longer-term growth plans, the enlarged entity might then seek its own listing on the SGX. TalkMed first flagged the possibility of an offer on April 6.
Typically, most delisted companies had not seen active trading volumes for quite some time. Liquidity and volatility for these companies have been relatively stagnant for years.
Limited appeal
Although SGX’s regulatory framework ensures market stability and transparency, its rigid listing requirements, compared to other regional exchanges, could limit its appeal to a broader range of companies, says María Silvia Scetta, CEO and co-founder of DeltaBlock, a market maker that helps companies listed in France and Singapore to enhance liquidity.
While the Singapore market has always been dubbed as a “safe” investment destination for long-term investors who are heavily focused on dividends, it is challenging for the market to attract new listings that do not necessarily have that dividend track record. “This stability, while attractive to conservative investors, has created an environment where ‘holding’ outweighs active trading and capital growth,” says Scetta.
The CEO explains that active traders are crucial for share price formation. Their participation facilitates efficient price discovery, ensuring that prices reflect real-time market conditions, supply and demand.
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She adds that without sufficient active trading, price discovery becomes less dynamic, leading to wider bid-ask spreads, lower liquidity and less accurate pricing. For penny stocks, the counter risks being susceptible to a single actor moving the share price instead of the share price reflecting actual market forces.
“This undermines the overall market efficiency and can deter institutional investors and traders from seeking reliable and timely pricing signals. Therefore, low liquidity affects valuations, skews risk perception and diminishes investor interest,” says Scetta.
In comparison, other regional markets such as Bursa Malaysia and HKEX have gained momentum by attracting companies seeking active, growth-oriented investor bases.
“The higher frequency of IPOs in these markets underscores Singapore’s challenge in competing for high-growth businesses. The enhanced market liquidity in these regions offers more favourable valuations, making them more appealing for new listings. Combined with more flexible regulations, these factors contribute to companies’ reluctance to list on SGX,” says Scetta.
Despite the abundance of capital in Singapore ranging from both institutions and high-net-worth individuals, much of this wealth has flowed out to other regions, where the returns are perceived to be higher. Scetta points out that this capital flight then reduces the pool of resources available to support local IPOs and growth-stage companies listed on SGX, further diminishing the attractiveness of Singapore as a listing destination.
REITs under the spotlight
Although these issues have been highlighted for years, the authorities finally took action to revive interest in the market. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has convened a review group to assess and enhance the country’s IPO ecosystem, focusing on making the listing process more accessible and attractive for companies.
Darren Ng, transactions accounting support partner at Deloitte Singapore, says: “This initiative is expected to encourage more diverse listings and improve market efficiency, reinforcing Singapore’s status as a leading financial hub. With these favourable conditions and regulatory support, the city-state’s IPO market, particularly in the REIT sector, is set for robust growth in 2025.”
“As global interest rates stabilise, investor appetite for income-generating assets like REITs is expected to strengthen. With its established REIT framework, Singapore remains a preferred listing destination for REITs in Asia, attracting local and international issuers looking to tap into a well-regulated market with high liquidity,” adds Ng.
Echoing similar sentiments, Gerald Wong, founder and CEO of investment platform Beansprout, notes that CapitaLand Investment had shared during its Investors’ Day that the group wants to list more REITs. Over the next five years, CapitaLand Investment plans to list a REIT in onshore China, India and Australia.
“There are also different sponsors looking at potential REIT listings here in Singapore,” he adds, without specifying the sponsors’ names. He says this reflects better interest rate certainty after the recent US Fed interest rate cuts.
However, for that to happen in significant numbers, Wong believes that more confidence in interest rate cuts and improved sentiment towards the REIT sector are needed. He notes that the market is seeing a continued divergence, with some REITs with strong sponsors and the ability to grow their distributions trading at a premium to book while other REITs are still trading at a discount to book value.
Wong believes that if the REIT sponsors want to list in Singapore and want a good valuation, the overall environment needs to improve. “We continue to see that divergence in the market. While the STI is at a 17-year high, we don’t see that happening in all sectors and all stocks except the three banks and SGX,” says Wong.
Nonetheless, some listings are on the way. In September, Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) was said to be considering a data centre REIT IPO as soon as late 2025.
NTT could raise as much as US$1 billion ($1.35 billion) from the first-time share sale, but the data centre assets, including the REIT, may be worth US$2 billion to US$3 billion.
At US$1 billion, the listing of the NTT data centre REIT would be the biggest in the city-state since Netlink NBN Trust raised US$1.7 billion in 2017, according to Bloomberg. NTT, which counts the Japanese government as its biggest shareholder, has a market value of about US$93 billion.
Looking at how data centres are sprouting up across the region, it is not inconceivable that Singapore might be the listing destination for more of these asset owners down the road.
Shern-Ling Koh, portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors, says Singapore is a “credible centre” for data centre listings. “People understand the space. If you are a big data centre developer and want to sponsor an external REIT, you wouldn’t do it in the US; you would do it here,” he says.
Also, Mapletree Investments, which is already a key sponsor within the REIT space here, may move forward one for its US logistics assets for listing, according to market watchers.
Potential new non-REIT listings
In early December, The Edge Singapore reported on the possible listing of Thai Beverage ’s beer business, citing an optimistic outlook and improving margins.
First highlighted around four years ago, ThaiBev’s highly anticipated Singapore IPO of its beer business (BeerCo), delayed several times, might be back on the burner again. During the FY2024 results call, ThaiBev acknowledged that market conditions have become more favourable, with lower interest rates. However, while talks with its partners are ongoing, the company has yet to set a concrete timeline for the IPO.
Michael Chye, chief of ThaiBev’s beer product group, told reporters on Oct 1 that BeerCo’s IPO could take place in 3Q2025 if the group decides on the share sale by December. Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, CEO of ThaiBev, also told Bloomberg in October that the group “received good interest” from potential partners for the beer unit.
DBS analysts Chee Zheng Feng and Andy Sim say the likelihood of a BeerCo IPO is “much higher than before” with the recovery in ThaiBev’s Vietnam beer business. The pair also floated the idea of yet another spinoff in their Nov 12 report: ThaiBev’s relatively smaller and lower-profile food business, F&B Co. F&B Co is a multi-market, multi-product entity estimated to be worth more than $3.4 billion, or more than 15 cents per ThaiBev share.
Similarly, another beverage company with roots in Thailand was reportedly considering an IPO. In May, Bloomberg reported that General Beverage was seeking a valuation of US$300 million for the listing of its unit that distributes the IF brand of coconut water, raising between US$30 million and US$50 million.
In the same month, The Edge Singapore spoke with Nasdaq-listed AvePoint, following the company’s investment from Temasek-backed 65 Equity Partners, which took up a stake of around 9%. The data management and data governance solutions provider says that with this investment, the company will likely have a listing in another exchange.
“We believe that an eventual dual listing on the SGX will garner additional investor support in the region,” says Tianyi Jiang, CEO and co-founder of AvePoint. In August, Bloomberg reported that potential capital market transactions could occur as early as the next 12 months. Unlike other secondary listings here that did not raise capital, such as EV maker Nio in May 2022 and alcohol brand owner Emperador two months later, AvePoint is said to be raising a few hundred million dollars if and when the secondary listing takes place.
According to market watchers, two other companies said to be listing candidates here include medical technology firm UltraGreen.ai, whose chairman is former SGX chairman Kwa Chong Seng and also the maker of the 5-Hour Energy power drink.
Renewed year of IPOs
Regionally, Singapore’s IPO market this past year has been more “mundane”. In comparison, neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are more lively, albeit less active than in the previous year. According to Deloitte’s Southeast Asia IPO report, for the first 10 and a half months of 2024, the whole Southeast Asia market saw 122 new listings, representing a market capitalisation of US$12.9 billion. A total of US$3 billion was raised in this period.
While the number of IPOs remains healthy, the total capital raised has been the lowest in nine years, showing a decline from the US$5.8 billion raised across 163 IPOs in 2023. The region saw a decline in IPO activity compared to the previous year, largely due to a lack of blockbuster listings. In 2024, only one IPO raised over US$500 million, compared to four such listings in 2023.
Despite global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, which have created challenges for capital markets worldwide, Malaysia stands out as a bright spot in Southeast Asia. It leads the region in all three key metrics: Number of IPOs, total amount of IPO funds raised and IPO market capitalisation. It had 46 new listings, raising about US$1.5 billion.
This was followed by Thailand, with 29 IPOs raising US$756 million, and Indonesia, with 39 IPOs raising US$368 million.
According to Deloitte, the amount raised this year from the IPOs is slightly more than 50% of last year, while the market cap was just 30% of the previous year.
In terms of industries, consumer and energy & resources were the top two dominating the region, accounting for 52% of total IPOs and 64% of total IPO funds raised.
“Southeast Asia’s IPO market encountered significant regional challenges in 2024, including currency fluctuations, regulatory differences across markets, and geopolitical tensions, which affected trade and investment,” says Tay Hwee Ling, Deloitte Southeast Asia’s accounting & reporting assurance leader.
“High interest rates across Asean economies further constrained corporate borrowing, dampening IPO activity as companies opted to delay public listings,” she adds.
Tay believes that market volatility among major trade partners impacted investor confidence, while varied regulatory requirements across Southeast Asian countries created complexities for companies seeking cross-border listings.
“Companies seeking to list overseas have to consider markets that represent a core growth segment for their business, where investors can better understand and evaluate their business model, and where many comparable companies are listed. They should also consider which market has sector-specific analyst expertise to attract investors within their sector,” says Tay.
On the outlook, Tay expects interest rate cuts and easing inflation to create a more favourable environment for regional IPOs in the years ahead. “Southeast Asia’s strong consumer base, growing middle class and strategic importance in sectors like real estate, healthcare and renewable energy remain attractive to investors. As foreign direct investment continues to flow into the region, 2025 is poised to be a year of renewed IPO activity across Southeast Asia,” says Tay.
