It's time SGX and sponsors get tougher with firms looking to list

The lack of scrutiny has let through companies with questionable business models. Companies with poor business models are more likely to turn to fraud to generate results.

Published Tue, Mar 5, 2019 · 09:50 PM

IPO

THEY say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

I hope that this is not the philosophy of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which has given investors quite a few lemon IPOs over the past few years, and especially in the past year. This has further soured investors' sentiments, already severely dented by corporate scandals, spectacular collapses and controversial delistings.

There is the case of Y Ventures, the data analytics-driven e-commerce firm on Catalist since July 2017, which announced in January this year that there were material errors in its unaudited results for the six months ended June 30, 2018. The "profit" of US$143,000 announced back in August 2018 has now turned into a loss of US$1.16 million.