Malaysian start-ups planning their Initial Public Offerings (IPO) can now look forward to the possibility of raising market capital across the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as member states are pushing for further integration of the regional capital market, said former Chairman of the CIMB Group Bhd, Tan Sri Mohamed Nazir Bin Abdul Razak.
He said further integration of ASEAN can be partially accomplished by the ASEAN IPO Prospectus, making the ASEAN identity more meaningful.
When listing on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, or Bursa Malaysia, the companies seeking listing can choose to register a Malaysian Prospectus or an ASEAN Prospectus.
According to Mohamed Nazir, also the co-founder and Chairman of Ikhlas Capital, currently, IPOs listing on the Bursa can only tap into local funding, additionally, capital from Singapore and one or two other countries.
“The region is not cohesive. We’ve got fragmented markets with different structures, multiple regulatory frameworks, and so on. This undermines the economies of scale for businesses,” said Mohamed Nazir, adding that the limited size makes it very difficult to raise capital from global financing institutions.
