PETALING JAYA: The Securities Commission (SC) expects Malaysia’s initial public offering (IPO) pipeline to remain healthy with 35-40 new listings projected this year.
Its chairman, Awang Adek Hussin said to achieve this, SC is working to speed up the IPO process and reduce time-to-market to improve Malaysia’s competitiveness and attractiveness.
“Malaysia would further facilitate companies to list on Bursa Malaysia and attract more investors,” he said at a panel session titled “Macro Resilience and Market Insights” at the Invest Malaysia New York 2023 forum organised by Bursa yesterday in New York, US.
In a clear message to foreign fund managers, he said the Malaysian capital market remained resilient, with total funds raised hitting a 10-year high of RM179.4 billion in 2022 despite tough global challenges.
He also said that total funds raised in Malaysia’s equity and corporate bond market reached RM58.9 billion for the first six months of this year.
This signals that the equity and bond markets have remained a significant source of financing for the private sector.
He said Malaysia is rolling out key measures to boost market vibrancy and enhance investors’ access to the country’s capital market.
This includes the automatic promotion of eligible public-listed companies (PLCs) from the ACE Market to the Main Market, the reduction of stamp duty, enabling fractional share trading by investors through stockbrokers, and the introduction of the foreign exempt scheme framework.
“Plans are also under way to facilitate and attract the setting up of family offices in Malaysia, widening the definition of sophisticated investors to include angel investors and reducing board lot size for share trading on Bursa,” he added.
By emphasising that market fundamentals remained strong, he said Malaysia has a strong value proposition for foreign companies, with a solid infrastructure and talent base.
“Domestic liquidity also remained well supported, with local retail and foreign participation staying healthy throughout the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
He noted that foreign investors returned as net buyers last year for the first time since 2017. They have also been net buyers in the bond market year-to-date, recording an inflow of RM27.4 billion as of August 2023.
Earlier, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim gave a keynote address at the forum.
It was attended by 200 financial and investment community delegates, including foreign fixed-income, equity and private equity investors with combined assets under management of over US$40 trillion (RM188 trillion).
Also present were Bank Negara Malaysia governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour and Bursa CEO Umar Swift.