Rule dents small caps' market values: study

Singapore

MANDATORY quarterly reporting could cost Singapore-listed small-caps an average of S$9.0 million in "lost" market value that they might have had otherwise, academics have found. The controversial rule also does not actually improve small-caps' liquidity and overall imposes a net burden on these firms, they said in a paper published last week.

The study also found that quarterly reporting did not help reduce information asymmetry and that quarterly reporting was not a means to "complement or substitute existing corporate governance mechanisms to improve liquidity", they added.