Daily Briefing: SGX eases dual-class share rules to lure tech IPOs; Singapore turns to venture debt for funding

And here's Standard Chartered's new MD who moved in after spending five months in rival Safra Sarasin.

From Bloomberg Finance:

SGX wants to loosen some of the rules it planned to enforce on dual-class listings like a minimum market cap, Bloomberg reported, citing sources asking not to be named. Last year, the exchange proposed allowing dual-class shares, a structure favoured by tech founders because it lets them keep control after going public. 

"Making dual-class shares easier to adopt is an attempt to make Singapore more competitive with exchanges in the US, which have in recent years listed Chinese tech companies that now have a combined market value of about $785b, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China is also joining the race to draw more tech initial public offerings, whilst Hong Kong is pitching that it too will allow dual-class shares.

SGX’s latest proposals, which are expected to be published as a public consultation this month, would eliminate an earlier recommendation that dual-share listings have a market value of at least $500m (US$380m), the people said. A proposed rule that such companies have to be traded on the main venue will also be dropped, they said. Details are still being deliberated on and may change, the people said. The initial consultation was published in February 2017, and the rules have yet to take effect."

Read more here.

From Deal Street Asia:

In an interview with Deal Street Asia, InnoVen Capital CEO Chin Chao shared how Singapore is amongst the top Southeast Asian countries quickly adopting to venture debt as a form of funding. For the whole region, venture debt as a percentage of venture capital is still low at approximately 5%.

"Back in September 2016, I spoke in an interview with you about how venture debt is becoming a $100m a year opportunity in Southeast Asia. We are not still not there yet but we’re getting there. We have seen specific cities that have quickly adopted venture debt as a beneficial funding option. The highest adoption so far has been in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I believe that these three cities are key markets for us going forward because the VC ecosystem is more developed in these markets and venture debt works best when the VC market is mature."

Read more here.

From eFinancialCareers:

Standard Chartered hired a new managing director in Singapore after he spent just five months at rival bank Safra Sarasin. Nakul Beri, an experienced non-resident Indian (NRI) banker, shifted to Standard Chartered Private Bank earlier this month, his public profile revealed.

"Before joining Safra Sarasin last October, Beri was at Bank of Singapore (BoS) for 11 months and at Barclays, latterly as a director and team head, for more than seven years. He transferred to BoS in 2016, along with about 60 other Barclays bankers, after it purchased Barclays’ Asian wealth business.

His new move to Stan Chart, despite following such a short tenure, is not as surprising as it may seem. Beri has been reunited with his old boss from Barclays, Srinivas Siripurapu, who is now ASEAN and South Asia head at Stan Chart."

Read more here.