Bursa expects fewer IPOs this year

by **Cals** Thu 30 Jan 2014, 02:23

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Bernama

Wednesday, 29 January 2014 20:03

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): The financial year 2014 will see fewer initial public offerings (IPOs) in the local bourse, although the total size of the IPOs will be higher than last year, Bursa Malaysia Bhd said today.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Tajuddin Atan, said last year saw 18 IPOs launched, with a total size of RM8.2 billion, compared to 17 IPOs with a total size of RM22.9 billion in 2012.

"We are seeing a healthy pipeline so far, and we can see fewer but bigger companies that would want to launch their IPOs, such as Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd and Malakoff Corp Bhd," he said.

Iskandar Waterfront is tasked with developing a Malaysian city to rival neighbouring Singapore, while Malakoff is the country's largest independent power producer.

"The key benchmarks that we need to monitor here, are the market capital and the inflow of strong, big companies," he told reporters, at a press conference announcing the local bourse's results.

"Generally, these are the companies that provide good traction, and hopefully from 13 to 14 big companies, we will see a lot more activities that translate to data that we are looking at," he said.

He said, the key focus would also be in the trading side, with market capital increase and sentiment to grow, especially on the equity side.

Bursa Malaysia is an approved exchange holding company, under Section 15 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007.