Singapore is hoping to incentivize local businesses into listing on their market.
Singapore has long served as a business hub for the world at large, especially for buyers and sellers of high-profile real estate. However, in the interest of fostering greater growth in the city-state, Singapore would like to get more tech companies on their local ticker, as tech currently shows the highest rate of growth of all sectors.
“We did have technology companies that came through fully, such as Nanofilm. We clearly want to see more of them,” Loh Boon Chye, chief executive of the Singapore Exchange, told CNBC.
To this end, the Singaporean government is making an investment into its own stock market to attract high-profile and burgeoning tech companies from nearby regions to begin listing with them. The government has teamed up with state investment firm Temasek to bankroll a new public fund to aid companies looking to build up their value. This fund will start with a sizable cash injection of 1.5 billion Singapore dollars, approximately $1.1 billion USD.
JUST IN: Singapore will boost its domestic stock market and startups with a package of funding measures, seeking to enhance its appeal as an Asian financial hub https://t.co/ouDKzv6b5h
— Bloomberg (@business) September 17, 2021
“We know that the initiatives we are launching today are no magic bullet,” Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said in a speech announcing the measures.
“But we believe they will blow new wind into the sails of our public equity market, and make SGX not just a viable but a compelling option for innovative growth companies seeking a public listing,” he added.
The market is looking to attract “unicorns,” start-ups that have managed to reach a valuation of over $1 billion. According to Gan, these companies will “come of age” soon, which could spark an interest in listing on the public market. As such, “we should strive to anchor these companies in Singapore,” Gan explained.
