Poorly performing companies that will find themselves put on SGX RegCo’s Watch List will enjoy further breathing room.
The market’s front line regular, in consultation with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, will again suspend putting new listed companies into the watch list till June 1 next year.
The suspension was first put in effect in June 2020, when economies and companies were struggling to deal with the pandemic-induced crisis. The suspension was already extended once, on May 21 2021.
“As multiple sectors of the economy are only beginning to stabilize from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and many restrictions were relaxed just recently in 2022, we intend to allow all issuers a full financial year to operate under normal business conditions and recover from the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic,” says SGX RegCo on May 26.
“SGX RegCo will re-commence our half-yearly watch-list review only from June 1 2023.”
SGX RegCo typically reviews on a half-yearly basis, on the first market days of June and December, listed issuers for their compliance with the watch-list requirements.
See also: SGX RegCo issues 'trade with caution' warning on karaoke chain 9R
Under Listing Rule 1311, companies are to be placed on the watch-list if they report pre-tax losses for the 3 most recently consecutive financial years, and have an average daily market capitalisation of less than S$40 million over the last 6 months.
There are now 27 companies on the SGX Watch-List. They face delisting if they could not meet certain operating metrics.
Companies do exit the Watch-List, although they are far and few in between.
