Companies will quickly get the chance to listing in each the U.S. and Singapore in a first-of-its form partnership. The SGX-NASDAQ twin itemizing bridge, which can begin later this yr, is a part of Singapore’s drive to revitalize its inventory change, which has persistently lagged different regional bourses just like the Hong Kong Inventory Trade in attracting IPOs and different offers.
The bridge will doubtless attraction to Southeast Asian firms who need to draw on the U.S.’s deep capital market, but nonetheless faucet “strong brand recognition” in Southeast Asia, says Chan Yew Kiang, the ASEAN IPO chief at accounting agency EY.
Tay Hwee Ling, capital service markets chief of Deloitte Southeast Asia, provides that U.S. companies may also take the chance to increase their buying and selling hours past the shut of U.S. markets, in addition to strengthen their presence in Southeast Asia.
The partnership additionally broadens funding choices for Asian buyers trying to diversify amid geopolitical uncertainty, says Clifford Lee, world head of banking at DBS.
“With the Global Listing Board, companies can access the best of both worlds—U.S. market depth and Asian growth in a streamlined pathway,” an SGX spokesperson stated.
A lift to Singapore?
Singapore’s inventory change has lengthy suffered from low liquidity. Common day by day turnover on the SGX is simply $1.4 billion, in comparison with $29 billion on the HKEX.
“China and Hong Kong have massive populations of active retail speculators who drive high daily turnover, while Singapore’s retail base is smaller, more conservative and prefers dividends and bonds,” says Glenn Thum, a analysis supervisor at Singapore-based stockbroker Philips Securities. “The higher liquidity and volumes in HKEX attract high-frequency traders, creating a cycle that boosts valuations and attracts more IPOs.”
Hong Kong additionally advantages from a gentle pipeline of Chinese language firms hoping to faucet world buyers by itemizing within the monetary middle. Exchanges in mainland China “benefit from the depth and breadth of the local investor base and market size,” says Chan of EY.
Then there’s the U.S., which provides deeper swimming pools of capital than different Asian exchanges. That’s led a number of Southeast Asian firms, like ride-hailing agency Seize and e-commerce firm Sea, to listing within the U.S. as a substitute of their house base of Southeast Asia. Extra just lately, Filipino meals conglomerate Jollibee Meals Company (JFC) introduced that it might listing its worldwide enterprise within the U.S. by 2027.
Singapore’s market is enhancing. In 2025, the SGX’s IPO proceeds additionally surged to its highest stage since 2019, topping Southeast Asia’s IPO market. The turnover worth of securities traded on the SGX in December climbed by 29% year-on-year.
Nonetheless, Singapore’s IPOs are nonetheless a lot smaller than Hong Kong’s. Singapore’s largest IPO, NTT DC REIT, raised $773 million; by comparability, CATL’s secondary itemizing in Hong Kong raised over $5 billion.
Not a ‘silver bullet‘
However Thum of Philips Securities warns that the bridge isn’t a “silver bullet,” as firms will nonetheless face a neighborhood liquidity crunch until U.S. buyers actually begin buying and selling throughout Singapore hours.
Additionally, solely firms with a market capitalization better than 2 billion Singapore {dollars} ($1.6 billion) qualify for the twin itemizing bridge, that means solely a small variety of Southeast Asian companies will qualify. For instance, QAF Restricted, a Singaporean meals conglomerate housing bakery manufacturers like Gardenia and Bonjour, has a market capitalization of roughly $546 million, which suggests it might not be capable to file for a twin itemizing on the Nasdaq.
By comparability, the HKEX’s threshold for a secondary itemizing is simply $385 million in market capitalization.
