By Ms Ng Siao Hui and Ms Angela Sigrid J Along
This article has previously been published in legalbusinessonline.com
The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has announced that its new board, GlobalQuote, which it has set up in collaboration with NASDAQ OMX Group Inc., will begin operation on 22 October 2010 with American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of 19 major Asian companies. Of these 19 companies, 9 are currently trading their ADRs in the US while the other 10 have listings in Hong Kong.
GlobalQuote has been positioned as a platform to link up market participants across both SGX and NASDAQ trading pools, enabling the general investors to trade the securities of some of the most exciting companies in Asia, namely Baidu INC, Ctrip.com International, Changyou.com Ltd, Home Inns & Hotels Management, Netease.com INC, Shanda Interactive, Suntech Power Holdings, Trina Solar Ltd, Aluminum Corporations of China, China Eastern Airlines, China Mobile Ltd, China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd, China Telecom Corporations, China Unicom Hong Kong, Huaneng Power International, INC, Petrochina Co., Ltd, Sinopec Shanghai, and Yanzhou Coal Mining.
It is also SGX's intention to extend its ADRs platform to other countries in the region, such as Korea, Taiwan and India, if ADRs trading during Asian trading hours proves popular with investors.
SGX, Asia's second-largest bourse in terms of market capitalisation, has been perceived to lose out to Hong Kong in attracting listings by large Chinese companies. Thus, SGX is aggressively seeking opportunities to position itself as an Asian Gateway for international issuers and investors as exchanges around the region compete against each other to list blue chips on their respective exchanges. The ADRs offering appears to be the latest attempt by SGX to boost trading volumes and liquidity.
It is believed that the ADRs offering creates a great potential and offers new opportunities to both investors and US-listed companies. The investors can act quickly on information and news-flow on major Asian companies, while the US-listed companies can increase their exposure amongst the Asian-Pacific investor community by giving them access to the relevant companies within local trading hours.
Any reader, who is interested to learn more about the above, may wish to access the relevant website ( Singapore Exchange Launches ADRs).
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