Australia’s market for new initial public offerings, already moribund, has been further dented by an Australian Taxation Office attempt to levy a tax on foreign private equity exits.
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The Indonesian Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises sent its top brass on the road in April with a presentation entitled: “Towards world class corporations.” The ministry showcased several of its key state-owned enterprises and told investors around Asia about the bright future they believe awaits this vast chunk of Indonesian commerce – 141 enterprises with Rp2,150trn in assets, or 38% of Indonesia’s GDP.
Indian companies’ global listing ambitions were revived in May with the £1.3bn UK listing of Essar Energy – the first Indian LSE listing since 2003. However, the deal was not an easy one with the European debt crisis as the backdrop.
Following on from the blockbuster M$11.2bn IPO of telco Maxis last November, Malaysia looks to be maintaining momentum and retaining its status as the liveliest market for equity issuance in South-East Asia. Like the Maxis deal, which was actively encouraged if not instigated by the country’s prime minister, a large part of this drive to invigorate Bursa Malaysia is coming from the top. Prime Minister Najib Razak is the brother of CIMB’s CEO and seems to share the same enthusiasm for capital markets.
The Philippine Stock Exchange has seen very little issuance recently but the launch of a new asset class should bring some much-needed life to the bourse. The passing of the country’s REIT law, which has been three years in the making and was expected to come into effect in May, should spur issuance from major property developers, which are keen to take advantage of a new means of funding.
It seems a long time ago that the markets were swamped with Indian convertible bonds: zero coupons, tightly priced with the fees squeezed until they hurt. That glut of convertibles came to an end in 2008 and there has been little sign of it since – until a little-known Indian education company called Core Projects & Technologies reopened the market in April.
The Chinese property IPO market all but dried up in the first five months of the year thanks to the Chinese government implementing a series of stringent measures to cool the overheating property sector. Only one property developer, Fujian-based luxury residential property developer China SCE Property, listed on the Hong Kong bourse in February. The negligible issuance from the Chinese property sector is likely to continue until the end of the year.