Bursa chief 'frustrated', hopes for new listings

THE chief of Bursa Malaysia Bhd (1818) is frustrated that a growing number of companies are being privatised and delisted this year but is hopeful there will be more new listings to offset this trend.

Chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said he hopes to see just as many new listings in the second half of the year as the 12 in the first half.

"Of course, market conditions will dictate, but hopefully, (we'll see) a similar number to what we saw in the first half," he told Business Times on the sidelines of the Capital Market Forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The Securities Commission chairman Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, who was also at the forum, said two more companies from China could be listed on Bursa before the year-end, adding to the four Chinese firms already on the exchange.
To date, the stock market has seen a total of 17 new listings - the largest being the RM1.5 billion Sunway property trust last month - compared with just 14 the whole of last year.

The new listings have helped grow market capitalisation (cap) to just over RM1 trillion, but this could reduce substantially as a number of companies look set to go private and be taken off the market.

Last month alone, there were five such privatisation proposals, the largest being that of tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan's power and gaming firm Tanjong plc, which has a market cap of around RM8.5 billion now.

"We wish it wouldn't happen but we also accept that this is part of current market dynamics. The shareholder (Ananda) has other plans at the moment, but we sincerely hope that we'll see the return of these companies, like we saw the return of Maxis," Yusli remarked.

Yusli said businesses and markets were constantly evolving and that this was something the exchange had to live with.

"There's no permanence of anything. But at least, we're seeing more companies come to the market as well, so that's a good sign," he added.

A sizeable new listing that could happen this year is that of Petroliam Nasional Bhd's subsidiary Malaysian Marine and Heavy Engineering Bhd (MMHE), potentially in October.

MMHE's initial public offering (IPO) size could be around RM1.4 billion, investment bankers say.

Eversendai Corp Sdn Bhd, a home-grown structural steel contractor, could also come to the market by the year-end with an IPO size of about RM320 million.