April 7, 2025
SINGAPORE – Singapore companies have recently been seeking opportunities in the Malaysian stock market, with semiconductor firms UMS Integration and Grand Venture Technology receiving approvals for their secondary listings in March.
This comes as global and regional markets in 2025 are expected to see a rebound in listings after a few years of tepid activity, experts said.
Grand Venture Technology, which listed on Singapore’s Catalist board in 2019, said it obtained its secondary listing approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia on March 24.
“The company will be working towards the next steps with its advisers and provide an update through an announcement on SGXNet as and when there are material developments in this respect,” it told The Straits Times.
It has operations in Penang and Johor Bahru.
UMS, on its part, said it received its approval from the Malaysian regulator on March 26.
The company’s chairman and chief executive, Mr Andy Luong, said UMS’ secondary listing is aimed at broadening investor reach and widening investor base, as well as improving share liquidity and supporting the group’s growth in the coming years.
He said in response to queries from ST: “The group has recently acquired more land in Penang to expand its production facilities to meet the expected demand from key customers.
“However, the group has no immediate plan to raise more funds from the secondary listing.”
He also said that the group will hold an extraordinary general meeting to seek shareholders’ approval for changes to its existing Constitution that will facilitate the trading and settlement of the shares on Bursa Securities, and other amendments as required by the relevant authorities.
They are the latest companies to look to Malaysia, after the stock market there bucked the trend of global and regional declines by continuing to see strong initial public offering (IPO) numbers in recent years.
Mr Chan Yew Kiang, EY’s Asean IPO leader, said that even as global markets saw IPOs declining in the last few years, some markets in South-east Asia have held steady, including Malaysia’s.
“While the number of listings and proceeds from listings had been trending downwards globally over the past three years, across South-east Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia continue to draw interest from companies and investors in 2023 and 2024,” he said.
“Notably, Malaysia saw a near-20-year high in IPO launches in 2024 due to increased foreign investments and economic activities that favoured local domestic companies, which led to an increase in business demand and valuations for the companies.”
A Deloitte report out in February showed that Malaysia saw 55 IPOs in 2024, which raised US$1.7 billion (S$2.27 billion). This represented a 100 per cent increase from 2023.
Deloitte Malaysia partner Wong Kar Choon noted in the report that Malaysia’s IPO market has been supported by active investor participation, especially from foreign investors.
“This has increased the vibrancy of Bursa Malaysia, which has seen encouraging oversubscription rates of more than 300 times. As Malaysia enters a more stable growth phase after a turbulent few years, the economy is expected to benefit from the carry-over effect of this strong momentum,” he said.
“With the heightened interest in IPOs by both companies and investors, as well as the impressive valuations being achieved in Malaysia, there is huge potential for Bursa Malaysia to become an attractive listing destination for regional companies.”
Bursa Malaysia also had South-east Asia’s top listing in 2024 – consumer company 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings. Its IPO raised US$574 million.
Some experts are optimistic that 2025 should see a rebound in listings, which bodes well for Malaysia to continue its performance and regional bourses to play catch-up.
Mr Stephen Bates, partner and head of deal advisory at KPMG in Singapore, said: “Looking ahead to 2025, anticipated interest rate cuts, easing inflation and strong foreign direct investment are expected to support a rebound in IPO activity across Asean and globally.
“The region’s expanding middle class, growing digital economy and push towards sustainability continue to position it as an attractive market for future listings.”
He added: “The global IPO market is expected to experience a significant resurgence in 2025, following a period of subdued activity.
“South-east Asia is benefiting from the recovery in global IPO markets, with Asean IPOs expected to surge in number and total raised funds.”
There are risks to this outlook though.
Ms Tay Hwee Ling from Deloitte South-east Asia and Singapore said that while US rate cuts in the last quarter of 2024 have helped to unlock pent-up IPO pipelines, the road ahead depends on factors such as US government policy moves, which could affect listing sentiments as well as market liquidity.
Already, investor jitters have been mounting on the back of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have stirred concerns that US semiconductor firms’ substantial manufacturing investments in Malaysia could come under threat.
According to Bloomberg, global funds have sold more than US$2.1 billion of Malaysian stocks on a net basis so far this quarter, the largest quarterly outflow since the second quarter of 2018.
Investors have been pulling funds from Thai stocks, too.
Over the past 12 months, foreigners pulled out US$4.2 billion from Thai stocks, the most in South-east Asia.
Thailand’s benchmark stock gauge, the SET Index, is down more than 15 per cent in 2025, making it one of the world’s worst performers among 92 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
While the weak investor sentiment can be attributed to domestic economic issues, Mr Trump’s tariff war is adding to the headwinds as a stronger US dollar has forced investors to flee from emerging markets, analysts said.
The tariffs announced on April 2 were worse than forecast, with a baseline 10 per cent applying to all goods imported into the US, and higher reciprocal tariffs on other countries that could dampen economic sentiment.
One market that has announced measures to draw more IPOs is Singapore.
Since the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced first steps to revive the local stock market on Feb 21, trading volumes on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) have jumped. On March 28, the benchmark Straits Times Index hit a new high of around 4,000 points during the day.
Among those efforts are incentives to draw more funds to list on SGX, as well as secondary listings by companies with a primary listing elsewhere.
This year so far, though, no IPOs have been announced in Singapore. In contrast, eight companies have announced plans to delist.
- Sue-Ann Tan is a business correspondent at The Straits Times covering capital markets and sustainable finance.