By Drew Singer and Yiqin Shen
(Bloomberg) — The heads of stock exchanges in a variety of Southeast Asian countries are urging US-listed companies to diversify their sources of capital by trading their shares in overseas markets and courting foreign investors.
The heads of exchanges in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines were all in New York last week, meeting with investors and advisers to push for more US-listed companies to
trade overseas, as well as attracting more foreign capital to their exchanges.
Issuers will increasingly look beyond one-location listings as a way to broaden access to capital amid higher interest rates and greater uncertainty, Singapore Exchange Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Loh Boon Chye said in an interview. “In a less globalized world, you want to have different pools of liquidity and different access to capital,” he said. “Listing on more than one exchange is likely to be the trend going forward.”
The latest round of meetings come after the Singapore Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange agreed in July to collaborate on dual listings, following a similar deal in 2020
with Nasdaq Inc. As firms based in China look to hedge political risks related to their trading venue of choice, the Singapore exchange is renewing its push for cross-border listings. At least 11
China-domiciled firms currently trade in both the US and Singapore, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The exchange is looking for firms similar to NIO Inc. after the US-traded, China-based electric-vehicle maker listed in Singapore earlier this year. But it isn’t limiting its interest to EV stocks. It recently launched a market for contracts in materials such as lithium and cobalt, increasing the “participants who understand the overall EV value chain,” Chye said.
In addition to Chye, the traveling party included Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Iman Rachman, President Director at the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and Ramon Monzon, President & CEO of the Philippine Stock Exchange. They touted rapid economic growth in Southeast Asia, in sharp contrast with that in the US and Asia, as a reason that foreign funds should consider investing more through their markets.
