Corporates eye Singapore bourse

The Singapore Exchange, or SGX Group, has been actively communicating with Chinese companies seeking listings in the city state as a growing number of Chinese businesses look to take advantage of the exchange's financing platforms to meet their strategic development needs in Southeast Asia, said SGX executives.

SGX is in touch with some Chinese companies that have already been listed offshore to find out how to help them extend their development strategies to Southeast Asia, said Chia Caihan, chief representative of the Singapore Exchange Beijing Representative Office.

"Many Chinese companies are expanding their business outside of China. Other countries and regions can learn from the good practices of many quality Chinese sectors and segments. We'll give full support to those companies that are planning to bring their products and brands to other markets by getting listed on SGX," Chia said during an online news briefing recently as SGX Group announced its fiscal year results.

The group reported adjusted net profit of S$456.4 million ($327.42 million) for FY2022. Its total revenue increased 4 percent year-on-year to S$1.099 billion.

Karen Chen, managing director and vice-chairman of SGX China, said although the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet come to an end, SGX believes that China and Southeast Asia are still full of opportunities and will look for more chances to connect with each other.

"Our business strategy in China is to deepen Singapore's complementary cooperation with China in multi-assets, including equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities, and thus facilitate our Chinese partners to better utilize our infrastructural link to access financing and risk control services," Chen said.

SGX will give full play to the position and market depth of Singapore in Southeast Asian capital markets as well as build cross-market interconnectivity to support China's Belt and Road Initiative and the financial market opening agendas under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, she added.

The so-called return of Chinese corporates from the United States should be seen as the return of Chinese corporates to the Asian market, where they can be better appreciated in terms of value and prospects as Asian brands and business models, said Chen in a written interview with China Daily earlier this year.

Chinese smart electric vehicle maker Nio Inc completed a secondary listing and commenced trading on the SGX main board on May 20, and thus became the first auto company in the world to be listed on three exchanges－New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.