Singapore can wield stick to win tech IPOs – Reuters

Technology companies based in the city-state are feeling the heat. New York-listed conglomerate Sea (SE.N), ride-hailing-to-payments app Grab – a target of a U.S. special-purpose acquisition vehicle read more – and Hong Kong-listed gaming company Razer have considered or been approached to trade their shares at home, per the FT citing sources.

It’s a tough sell given Singapore Exchange’s limited liquidity pool. With a market capitalisation of $145 billion, Sea is already more than twice as large as the FTSE Straits Times Index’s top constituent, lending group DBS (DBSM.SI). Nor does the staid market popular with real-estate trusts offer the kind of hot valuations startups and tech giants crave. That dynamic will be hard to change even if blank-cheque read more companies are allowed to list.

Singapore might persuade heavily regulated companies, especially those dabbling in payments, that they ought to plant a flag at home. It’s less attractive though than for the likes of Alibaba (9988.HK) whose partial homecoming to Hong Kong benefitted from access to giant pools of liquidity. (By Sharon Lam)

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