Asia dominates listings in global IPO update

Asia dominates listings in global IPO update
By Travis Teo | Posted: 11 April 2011 1530 hrs

SINGAPORE: US private equity-backed listings drove global IPO activity in the first quarter of this year, with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) taking the lead.

But Asia still dominates listings, with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange coming in second and the Singapore Exchange ranking three in terms of total capital raised globally.

That is according to Ernst & Young's first quarter Global IPO update.

The services firm added that the last few weeks of the quarter saw choppy stock markets spiked by the Japanese disaster and Middle East political unrest. This led to a slowdown in overall pace of global IPO activity.

But, in a statement, Ernst & Young said that there is still a healthy pipeline of companies waiting to tap in to the capital markets.

In the first three months of the year, global IPO activity saw 290 deals worth US$46.1 billion, down 14 per cent compared with the same period last year.

For the first time since 2008, the NYSE took the lead among world exchanges, raising US$13.8 billion of the total capital, followed by the US$11.2 billion capital raised on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and US$5.6 billion raised by the Singapore Exchange, largely due to the US$5.5 billion listing of Hutchison Port Holdings.

Ernst & Young said this reflects SGX's strength in sectors such as shipping and maritime, commodities, REITs and business trusts.

-CNA/ac

- wong chee tat :)