Singapore’s private equity markets will keep growing even if stocks stay lacklustre

[SINGAPORE] The lack of vitality in Singapore’s stock market is not likely to hamper growth in the private equity (PE) space, as companies find other ways to raise funds, said Hamilton Lane, one of the world’s biggest private markets investment firms with more than US$947 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Pointing out that initial public offerings (IPOs) have generally fallen in the past few years in key global listing hubs, Hartley Rogers, executive co-chairman at the firm, told The Business Times in an exclusive interview that businesses can seek other capital-raising options, instead of going public.

“Broadly speaking, IPO activity in the world has come down. And I think that’s a more fundamental question, because what you have in the private markets is so much dynamism, so many different participants, so many different ways that they can play that it’s quite feasible today for a company never to go public.”

Singapore has announced initiatives to revitalise its stock market, after drawing the lowest number of IPOs since 2011 last year. Four companies raised a total of S$45.9 million on Catalist, the so-called junior board on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), in 2024. On the other hand, a total of 20 companies delisted.

While SGX, brokers and investment bankers have expressed optimism of a pick-up in IPOs this year, there are potentially five companies that could delist, since they announced they had received offers to privatise.