The latest IPO to pull the plug is LYC Medicare, a subsidiary of Malaysia-listed LYC Healthcare, citing “prevailing market conditions in the Singapore equity market”. LYC Medicare had already filed its draft prospectus for a Catalist listing and will now consider other exchanges instead, said the parent company in a market announcement on June 12.
When market observers lament about low IPO numbers and post-listing trading interest, they often overlook the fact that many companies do want to list and do need the capital. They also want to be priced fairly by the market.
What professional services firm Forvis Mazars has observed is telling. It helped audit Niks Professional, one of the six companies that eventually listed last year. However, two other listing aspirants that had similarly engaged Forvis Mazars chose to abort at the final stages. “One is from the construction industry, and the other is from the IT industry. Both are due to low valuation issues,” says Ooi Chee Keong, partner and head of capital markets for Forvis Mazars in Singapore.
