Record capital raising in Philippines, Indonesia in 2021, with more to come

SOUTH-EAST Asia's capital markets recorded robust initial public offering (IPO) activities in 2021, with several notching their best-ever years in terms of IPO capital raised.

Regional exchanges have benefitted from having large domestic markets. And a substantial pool of companies looking to raise capital publicly have also chosen to stay local, in view of sufficient liquidity on their markets as well as investor familiarity - particularly among retail investors.

The 5 major Asean exchanges - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines - recorded 131 IPOs in total, up from 109 in 2020, Bloomberg data showed. The total value of US$12.1 billion was also an improvement over the US$7.6 billion from 2020. And the 2021 IPO cohort saw 5 companies that raised over US$1 billion, up from just 2 the year earlier.