Yet, signs of a year-end listing surge have manifested. On Nov 11, Trans China Automotive, a car distributor based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, opened at 24.5 cents, slightly higher from its offer price of 23 cents.
Market observers rueing another lull year for IPOs in the Singapore market might see a slight uptick in activity as the year draws to a close. This time last year, Nanofilm Technologies International’s big listing, which vaulted it to unicorn status, sparked optimism that the IPO drought will end and that more tech companies will follow, along with other big cap issues riding on euphoria brought about by the availability of vaccines.
However, things slowed entering 2021. For the first 10 months, there were just four listings, none of which drew the same kind of excitement. Having “lost” big homegrown names such as Razer, Sea and Grab to either US or Hong Kong, there was another sigh as TDCX, which provides business processing services, chose to list on the New York Stock Exchange and is now sitting pretty on a hefty market cap of US$3.5 billion ($4.7 billion).
