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Mr Wee Cho Yaw, Chairman UOB
Ladies & Gentlemen
Purpose of New Board
May I welcome all of you, particularly Mr Wee Cho Yaw, to this momentous occasion, commemorating the launch of New Board. New Board offers fast-growing companies a new route to the capital market. Those companies will generally be from the ranks of what is known as SMEs -- entrepreneurial ventures that may be daunted by the processes and costs of a Mainboard listing.
Nonetheless, New Board is not just reserved for SMEs. Companies of any size will be welcome to list on it should they be prepared to accept the watchful eye of a sponsor. Indeed, the choice of a listing on either of two boards will prove attractive to all companies, besides boosting the reach of SGX.
Being centred in Asia, New Board will primarily, but by no means exclusively, serve Asian companies and investors. We shall reach out to companies beyond Asia as well, and we welcome investors, as well as intermediaries, from all regions of the globe. That positioning is consonant with SGX’s role as an Asian hub for global markets.
Long gestation period
This New Board may be said to have been a decade in the making. It was in the aftermath of the great Asian financial crisis of 1997 that attention turned to the need to support and develop our entrepreneurial and innovative companies. The long gestation period suggests that a wealth of study, research, analysis and discussion has been invested in the effort that ultimately delivered New Board.
Our expectation is that New Board will open its doors for business in January 2008.
New regulatory model
That time was also spent to devise a regulatory model that differs from that of Mainboard. Yet, the same rigorous quality found in Mainboard will apply to the regulation of New Board.
One important difference in the regulatory model is the formation of a new class of intermediary, the sponsor. Sponsors will evaluate the suitability of companies besides advising them on compliance with listing rules. An applicant will not be required to submit to MAS a prospectus of the type required for the Mainboard. Instead, an “offer document” will be lodged with SGX for public exposure.
The ultimate accountability of SGX for the market is in no way abridged. SGX will select and appoint sponsors according to strict criteria, and keep close tabs on them, to ensure that they carry out their responsibilities in accordance with their solemn mandate.
SGX has devised a model for New Board that, we believe, strikes a balance between the desire of companies for a hassle-free, quick, and reasonably thrifty route to market with our countervailing duty of protecting the legitimate interests of bona fide investors.
Migration of SESDAQ companies
New Board represents a transformation of SESDAQ. SESDAQ has served Singapore faithfully for 20 years, and is now moving with the times to become New Board. Companies on SESDAQ will be given a period of at least two years to either migrate to the Mainboard or adjust to the regulatory requirements of New Board.
Acknowledgements
SGX is grateful for the presence here of many intermediaries, such as potential sponsors, as well as others representing diverse branches of the capital market. Your help in many ways, including your responses to the SGX Consultation Paper on New Board, has encouraged and enabled us to reach this seminal event in the evolution of the Singapore capital market.
I thank as well my SGX board colleagues for their guidance in this venture and the management team that has laboured diligently to create New Board.
We are particularly pleased that Mr Wee Cho Yaw, the driving force behind one of the most successful banks in South-East Asia, and a keen supporter of, and banker to, entrepreneurial companies, is gracing the occasion as guest-of-honour. I have great pleasure in welcoming Mr Wee to deliver his address.
Thank you.
