Adopting Japan or South Korea’s stock market reforms in Singapore not that straightforward

[SINGAPORE] Several commentators (myself included) have urged local market regulators to follow the examples of Japan and South Korea, where measures were introduced recently to raise the quality of listed companies.

In theory, the more listed firms of quality, the better off investors and the market as a whole. More importantly, the Japanese and South Korean requirements shift responsibility for addressing share price undervaluation to companies themselves – something that is currently lacking in Singapore’s listing rules.

In practice though, Japan, at least, has seen a mass exodus, because rather than stay and adapt to a more onerous regulatory regime, many companies have opted to delist.