Singapore investment banking fees climb to US$864.6m in 2025, highest in 4 years

[SINGAPORE] Investment banking fees generated in Singapore rose 28.9 per cent to US$864.6 million in 2025, the highest annual total since 2021.

This came as fees were largely up across segments, indicated data from the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) deals intelligence team.

Among the banks, DBS was the top fee earner in Singapore with US$72.9 million, taking an 8.4 per cent wallet share of the total fee pool, LSEG said in its Singapore Investment Banking Review published on Tuesday (Jan 6).

South-east Asia’s largest bank also took top positions in the league tables for Singapore-domiciled equity, equity-linked underwriting and bonds underwriting.

Advisory fees earned from completed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions rose 55.3 per cent to US$265.1 million, while equity capital markets underwriting fees more than doubled to a four-year high of US$210.9 million.

Debt capital markets fees grew 55.9 per cent to US$155.2 million, the highest since records began, although syndicated lending fees fell 24.1 per cent to US$233.4 million.

“Despite ongoing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, 2025 was a strong year for investment banking in Singapore,” said an analyst from the LSEG deals intelligence team.

For equity capital markets, total proceeds in 2025 more than doubled to US$7.4 billion, the best annual total since 2021, despite a slowdown in equity and equity-related activity in the fourth quarter.

Within initial public offerings (IPOs), Singaporean companies issued a total of 38 IPOs in 2025, raising US$2.5 billion.

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Of these, 27 IPOs were listed offshore – two in Hong Kong and 25 in the US – to raise a total of US$662.1 million. The 11 issuers that chose to list on the local bourse generated US$1.9 billion in proceeds.

By sector, real estate led in proceeds raised, up 42.7 per cent at US$3.2 billion, boosted by capital raising from real estate investment trusts (Reits).

This was followed by the high technology sector, which raised US$2.5 billion.

The LSEG analyst said more Singaporean issuers chose to list at home instead of abroad in 2025 following government initiatives.

While there were still more listings in the US and Hong Kong in 2025, the biggest IPOs opted for Singapore, including NTT DC Reit, Centurion Accommodation Reit and UltraGreen.ai, the analyst noted.

As for debt capital markets, primary bond offerings from Singapore-domiciled issuers rose 30.5 per cent to US$41.3 billion in 2025.

This was dominated by Singaporean issuers from the financials sector, with large bank issuances including several from DBS and UOB.

“The primary bond market was very robust and reached levels only topped by the post-pandemic boom in 2021, showing the resiliency of these debt instruments amid constantly changing markets,” the analyst said.

Meanwhile, M&A involving Singapore fell 9.1 per cent to US$70.4 billion, while the number of announced deals declined by 22.1 per cent to a decade low.

Domestic M&A activity fell 6.7 per cent to US$7.8 billion. Outbound M&A fell to a decade low of US$22.6 billion, although inbound M&A grew 16 per cent to US$19.2 billion.

By sector, energy and power was the most targeted industry involving Singapore by value – doubling in value to US$12.2 billion.

This was followed by real estate, where dealmaking fell 4.2 per cent to US$10.3 billion, and high technology, which was up 37.6 per cent at US$9.8 billion.

UBS topped the league table for M&A involving Singapore, with related transactions amounting to US$8.3 billion.