Tech unicorns set to benefit from new SGX-Nasdaq dual-listing highway: observers
The new framework allows companies to pursue a dual listing on both Nasdaq and SGX through a single set of documents
[SINGAPORE] Tech companies that aim for a Nasdaq listing and have significant operations here stand to benefit from the Global Listing board introduced by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in partnership with Nasdaq on Wednesday (Nov 19), observers say.
It was among the last set of measures proposed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Equities Market Review Group, which has been looking at how to rejuvenate the local stock market.
Market observers told The Business Times that this new harmonised cross-border listing framework gives high-growth Asian companies and tech unicorns the “best of both worlds”.
Scheduled to go live around mid-2026, the framework enables companies with a market capitalisation of S$2 billion and above to pursue a dual listing on both Nasdaq and SGX through a single set of documents and a simplified review process.
“With a single prospectus, they can tap the deep liquidity of the US while still connecting with Asian investors during Asian hours,” Luke Lim, chairman of the Securities Association of Singapore, told BT.
“This significantly strengthens Singapore’s value proposition for unicorns that previously felt they had to choose between SGX and a US listing – now, they don’t,” he added.
Apart from Singapore companies, these moves may even attract South-east Asian candidates. David Gerald, president of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), or Sias, said that they would be more likely to consider listing in Singapore, given the added benefit of a secondary listing on Nasdaq.
Other possibilities include tech companies that have long targeted a Nasdaq listing and have significant operations in the US. Now, there is little reason not to take advantage of the Singapore option, said Tan Kuan-Ern, managing director and co-head of Asia coverage at UBS.
“It’s almost the same from a cost perspective, and there is an incremental level of demand in Singapore now because we have become very successful as a wealth management centre,” he said.
Tan noted that in the recent listings of Centurion Accommodation Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) and NTT DC Reit, a substantial part of the demand came from private wealth clients, driven by the growing number of family offices setting up in Singapore.
These offices, Tan said, are run by professional managers who operate much like institutional funds and now need to participate in such deals, whether for tax considerations, access to US-dollar assets or other strategic factors.
He sees companies gaining the best of both worlds under this new dual-list highway – they get access to US investors, who provide price discovery and deep institutional capital, and access in Singapore to equity funds and substantial private-wealth pools.
Increased visibility
SGX expects a new wave of growth companies, from innovative startups to established industry leaders, to be able to tap expanded pools of growth capital at different stages of their development.
Its chief executive officer Loh Boon Chye noted that the new framework is distinct from the one used for secondary listings, which requires companies to prepare two separate sets of documents.
He said: “This is a single set of documents (that are) much streamlined (and) will fulfil the regulations on both the US and the Singapore market. And that is exactly the feedback we have received over the years, and obviously more intensified through this MAS review group.”
He added that SGX’s longstanding partnership with Nasdaq – initiated in 2020 – made it possible to identify what could be done differently to make the framework work effectively.
He highlighted that the arrangement could be especially beneficial for growth and technology companies.
This new initiative will also “reduce regulatory complexities, as a unified approach can be adopted for both markets”, even though the issuer will have to “comply continually with the requirements of both exchanges”, said Prof Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore Business School.
Clifford Lee, global head of investment banking at DBS, noted that US investors now have an option to invest in Asian companies that may not meet the criteria for a US listing, while investors in Singapore can access US-listed companies more easily through the same structure.
The initiative opens more opportunities for those seeking exposure to the US market but are facing barriers, effectively allowing them to access both markets through a single investment, added Sias’ Gerald, akin to getting “two bites of a cherry” with one move.
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