TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issue manager
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CEO Magnus Bocker and head of sales and clients Chew Sutat point to integrity of the market and the ease of raising capital
Kenneth Lim
23 October 2014
Singapore Exchange’s top brass are on a mission to counter what they see as myths about the stock market as the current drought of activity spawns a growing number of critics and doomsayers. Market volumes might be thin, but the integrity of the market and the ease of raising capital remain robust, said SGX chief executive Magnus Bocker.
The market operator has also been working to improve liquidity by introducing incentives for market makers and liquidity providers, and by launching numerous initiatives aimed at improving retail participation.
“We have a better quality market, actually, today than we did one year ago,” Mr Bocker said on the sidelines of SGX’s latest results briefing. “And I think that’s important to remember.”
To begin with, SGX asserts that the market is still in good shape. Although market turnover levels are at multi-year lows, SGX head of sales and clients Chew Sutat stressed that volumes are not the only gauge of market quality. Trading representatives, who are most affected by the low volumes, are also not the only stakeholders in the market.
For issuers, SGX continues to be an easy place to raise capital, Mr Chew said, noting that OCBC Bank’s S$3.3 billion rights issue was easily mopped up.
Long-term investors are also doing all right.
“When I talk to institutional investors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, buyside firms all across Asia, they all love our market,” Mr Chew said. “Why’s that? They say I’m already overweight Singapore because you have low volatility, high, steady returns, which in technical terms is a very high Sharpe ratio.”
All things considered, the Singapore market may be suffering weak volumes, but it still works well, Mr Bocker said.
“The volume per se, yes, of course I would like to see more, but I’m more concerned that we have a better quality of the market,” he said. “Because if we want to grow our market long term and make Singapore an attractive market to raise money in, the quality of the market is important.”
Mr Bocker also expressed his view that the current external factors plaguing the market are short-term - he expects that pressure to remain over the next quarter and possibly the quarter after that.
Beyond waiting out the market, stakeholders also need to be patient with some of SGX’s initiatives.
Mr Bocker and Mr Chew said that incentives introduced in June for market makers and liquidity providers are showing early success, but only for the 70 stocks that qualify for incentives. The goal is to eventually expand the universe of stocks that qualify for liquidity-related rebates.
“In some of those markets, especially in maybe the lower-priced stocks, we don’t have institutional investors, we don’t have any liquidity providers and market makers and therefore the market don’t become qualitatively as good, and that is something we are very keen on,” Mr Bocker said.
Mr Chew said that SGX has also stepped up outreach efforts to trading representatives and put out retail-targeted resources such as the recent StockFacts stock screener. Next year, minimum board lot sizes will be cut as well, potentially giving retail investors more ways to generate returns.
“We think the market actually has a lot of interest, opportunity,” said Mr Chew. “And it’s our job to go out there and help our trading representatives get a little bit more confident, give them the content, give them tools.”
Ultimately, Mr Bocker explained, improving market quality remains the paramount priority.
For example, some traders have blamed narrower bid-ask spreads for chasing away the professionals, who can make more if the spreads were wider. Or some have asked for rules that are more supportive of speculative trading. “It goes back to, what are you helping your clients to do?” said Mr Bocker. “What are the values you add to the market?”