Companies will quickly get the chance to checklist in each the U.S. and Singapore in a first-of-its form partnership. The SGX-NASDAQ twin itemizing bridge, which is able to begin later this 12 months, is a part of Singapore’s drive to revitalize its inventory alternate, which has persistently lagged different regional bourses just like the Hong Kong Inventory Change in attracting IPOs and different offers.
The bridge will doubtless enchantment to Southeast Asian corporations who need to draw on the U.S.’s deep capital market, but nonetheless faucet “sturdy model recognition” in Southeast Asia, says Chan Yew Kiang, the ASEAN IPO chief at accounting agency EY.
Tay Hwee Ling, capital service markets chief of Deloitte Southeast Asia, provides that U.S. corporations may also take the chance to increase their buying and selling hours past the shut of U.S. markets, in addition to strengthen their presence in Southeast Asia.
The partnership additionally broadens funding choices for Asian traders seeking to diversify amid geopolitical uncertainty, says Clifford Lee, world head of banking at DBS.
“With the International Itemizing Board, corporations can entry one of the best of each worlds—U.S. market depth and Asian development in a streamlined pathway,” an SGX spokesperson mentioned.
A lift to Singapore?
Singapore’s inventory alternate has lengthy suffered from low liquidity. Common every day turnover on the SGX is simply $1.4 billion, in comparison with $29 billion on the HKEX.
“China and Hong Kong have large populations of lively retail speculators who drive excessive every day turnover, whereas Singapore’s retail base is smaller, extra conservative and prefers dividends and bonds,” says Glenn Thum, a analysis supervisor at Singapore-based stockbroker Philips Securities. “The upper liquidity and volumes in HKEX entice high-frequency merchants, making a cycle that reinforces valuations and attracts extra IPOs.”
Hong Kong additionally advantages from a gradual pipeline of Chinese language corporations hoping to faucet world traders by itemizing within the monetary middle. Exchanges in mainland China “profit from the depth and breadth of the native investor base and market dimension,” says Chan of EY.
Then there’s the U.S., which affords deeper swimming pools of capital than different Asian exchanges. That’s led a number of Southeast Asian corporations, like ride-hailing agency Seize and e-commerce firm Sea, to checklist within the U.S. as an alternative of their dwelling base of Southeast Asia. Extra not too long ago, Filipino meals conglomerate Jollibee Meals Company (JFC) introduced that it could checklist its worldwide enterprise within the U.S. by 2027.
Singapore’s market is enhancing. In 2025, the SGX’s IPO proceeds additionally surged to its highest stage since 2019, topping Southeast Asia’s IPO market. The turnover worth of securities traded on the SGX in December climbed by 29% year-on-year.
Nonetheless, Singapore’s IPOs are nonetheless a lot smaller than Hong Kong’s. Singapore’s largest IPO, NTT DC REIT, raised $773 million; by comparability, CATL’s secondary itemizing in Hong Kong raised over $5 billion.
Not a ‘silver bullet‘
However Thum of Philips Securities warns that the bridge isn’t a “silver bullet,” as corporations will nonetheless face an area liquidity crunch except U.S. traders actually begin buying and selling throughout Singapore hours.
Additionally, solely corporations with a market capitalization better than 2 billion Singapore {dollars} ($1.6 billion) qualify for the twin itemizing bridge, which means solely a small variety of Southeast Asian companies will qualify. For instance, QAF Restricted, a Singaporean meals conglomerate housing bakery manufacturers like Gardenia and Bonjour, has a market capitalization of roughly $546 million, which suggests it could not be capable of file for a twin itemizing on the Nasdaq.
By comparability, the HKEX’s threshold for a secondary itemizing is simply $385 million in market capitalization.
