Kuala Lumpur leads Asian IPO market

Until late last year, Hong Kong was the world leader for initial public offerings, but now the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ranks at ninth place in terms of funds raised in IPOs, according to statistics published by Dealogic.   The leading IPO market in Asia is now Kuala Lumpur’s Bursa Malaysia, which takes third place among all jurisdictions worldwide, up from 15th place last year. Leading the pack are the two major U.S. exchanges – the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. But Kuala Lumpur’s relative success must be put in context: the exchange raised $5.8 billion in IPOs this year, which is not such an impressive figure in itself (last year Hong Kong IPOs raised $31.4 billion). KL ranks highly because the rest of the market is pretty dead.   Chei Liang Sin, a Singapore partner at Latham & Watkins, points out that there is room for further growth, since the fact that offerings are being led by state-owned enterprises means the market is still developing; a more mature market would see more private listings. 

Kuala Lumpur leads Asian IPO market americanlawyer.com Fri, Aug 31, 2012