IPO market could stir from slumber in H2

[SINGAPORE] A breezy access to favourable funding, and a shift from yield play may have lured listing candidates away, but pent-up demand could revive the initial public offering (IPO) market here in the second half of the year, bankers say.

So far this year, there have been just two mainboard IPOs, which raised a total of about $735 million, data compiled by BT showed. The same time last year, six mainboard listings raised $3.5 billion from their IPOs.

"We see a trend of companies looking for private fund-raising," said Tay Toh Sin, head of corporate finance at OCBC, referring to private investors such as Asian-based institutional funds. Companies want to shun the current market volatility too, she added.