Small-caps rescue Singapore’s struggling stock market

Catalist listings raised $237m this year.

Small-caps have come to the Singapore Exchange’s rescue this year. While large firms have largely shied away from listing on the SGX, small and medium enterprises have been extremely eager to launch their shares on the local bourse.

A report by Deloitte highlighted that SMEs remained active in backing the Catalist board with 12 new equity listings as of the end of November, raising $1.49 billion in market cap and $237 million funds.

The report showed that the SGX Catalist Board--a secondary board reserved for companies with market capitalisation of less than $150m--remained abuzz with activity despite the prevailing market downturn.

"Five out of 12 Catalist IPOs this year have a market capitalisation of above S$150 million versus two out of 18 in 2014. These five Catalist IPOs qualified as Mainboard candidates too but made an informed decision to list on the secondary board for perceived better market conditions,” said Dr Ernest Kan, Deloitte Southeast Asia Leader for Global IFRS and Offerings Services.

To support SMEs in equity markets, SPRING Singapore and the Singapore Exchange have jointly launched the SPRING-SGX Capabilities Development Grant to help SMEs enhance their financial frameworks and strategy for access to capital markets to stay resilient and achieve sustainable growth.

“On the bright side of the market, our SMEs are nimble and making positive inroads in the equity market to scale their business for sustainable growth. We have also seen an increase in the number of enquiries from SMEs for both onshore and offshore listings,” Dr. Kan said.