Daily Briefing: Local listings snub Singapore for Hong Kong; Impact investor IIX closes $12m Women's Livelihood Bond 2

And Bank of Singapore hires Nomura’s wealth management head.

From Bloomberg:

Hong Kong remains the top listing venue for Singapore companies.

CTR Holdings Ltd., a provider of engineering services, is the latest example, being the second Singaporean company that’s picked Hong Kong over its home ground this year, even with the ongoing anti-government protests in the financial hub.

In 2019, 10 Singaporean firms debuted in Hong Kong, raising $155 million, a 25% increase from 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Hong Kong and Singapore have been vying to be the number one financial hub in Asia. After losing e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, Hong Kong’s bourse introduced a number of listing reforms, where the Singapore Exchange followed shortly after, revising its listing rules to allow companies to offer shares with different voting rights.

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From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore-based impact investing organisation Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) on Wednesday announced that it has closed the $12-million Women’s Livelihood Bond 2 (WLB2), aiming to create sustainable livelihoods for over 250,000 underserved women in the Asia Pacific region.

The WLB2 will become the second multi-country gender bond in the Asia Pacific to be listed on the Singapore Exchange, following the footsteps of the $8 million Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB1) that was issued and listed on the same bourse in 2017, according to a statement.

The predecessor, which served roughly 385,000 women in Southeast Asia, was the world’s first impact investing instrument, and the first financial instrument focused on women and listed on a stock exchange. The four-year bond is paying a coupon of 5.65% to investors, per a previous company statement.

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From efinancialcareers:

Bank of Singapore (BoS) has hired wealth management veteran Harry Ng from Nomura, where he was a managing director. Ng is now a senior wealth planning specialist, covering Greater China and North Asia, Singapore, Malaysia and international markets, according to a spokesperson for BoS.

He is focused on ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients “with an emphasis on single family offices, liquidity and estate planning”, says the spokesperson.

Ng was previously head of Nomura Trust and Wealth Planning Strategy and Solutions for Asia ex-Japan, and led the unit’s overall strategy and product exposure for clients in the region. He was also tasked with managing client relationships and estate administration activities, spearheading its trustee services business, according to a Nomura statement announcing his appointment in 2015.

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