Daily Briefing: SGX-listed firms are moving North; HDB rental flat rates to depend on household status

And here are the top eight IPOs to invest in Singapore this year.

From Zuu Online via Yahoo!: The Singapore stock exchange’s rivalry with its Hong Kong counterpart has been intensifying in recent times. For one thing, the Hong Kong stock exchange is much larger. A recent report ranks HKEX at #6 in the world with the 1,866 companies listed on it having a total market cap of US$3.3 trillion. The SGX does not even make it to the top 20. The market cap of its 750+ listed companies is barely a fifth of that of the Hong Kong exchange. The greatest advantage that HKEX has over its rival is that it gives the companies listed on it access to mainland China.

From PropertyGuru: The monthly cost of flats under the Public Rental Scheme of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) is subsidised to provide affordable shelter to Singaporean households who need them the most, according to the Ministry of National Development. “More than half of HDB’s rental households pay basic rents, which are now set at S$26 per month for a one-room flat and S$44 a month for a two-room flat. The remaining households pay higher monthly rents based on their household incomes,” it said in a statement.

From Zuu Online via Yahoo!: Singapore has seen a good number of IPOs in the small to mid-cap segments as well as REITS for the past 3 years from 2015 to 2017. Typically, a company’s founder or co-founders cedes control over a portion of their shares in order to tap funds from institutional investors and retail investors for further expansion. Other benefits of going public include raising the company’s public profile in the investing community. A successful listing in Singapore also indicates that a company’s financials have been prepared in accordance to international financial accounting standards which boosts confidence in the governance track record by the key management of the company.