KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said Malaysia’s initial public offering (IPO) pipeline remained healthy and expects to see 35-40 new IPOs this year.

Its chairman, Datuk Seri Awang Adek Hussin, said the SC is working to speed up the IPO process and reduce time-to-market to ensure Malaysia’s competitiveness and attractiveness.

"Malaysia would further facilitate companies to list on Bursa Malaysia and attract more investors,” he said at a panel session titled "Macro Resilience and Market Insights” at Invest Malaysia New York 2023 yesterday.

In a clear message to the foreign fund managers, Awang Adek said the Malaysian capital market remained resilient, with total funds raised hitting a 10-year high of RM179.4 billion in 2022 despite tough global challenges.

He also said that total funds raised in Malaysia’s equity and corporate bond market reached RM58.9 billion for the first six months of this year.

"This signals that the equity and bond market have remained a significant source of financing for the private sector,” he said.

Awang Adek said Malaysia is rolling out key measures to boost market vibrancy and enhance investor access to the country’s capital market, including automatic promotion of eligible public listed companies (PLCs) from the ACE to the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia, reduction of stamp duty, enabling fractional share trading by investors through stockbrokers, and introducing the foreign exempt scheme framework.

"Plans were also underway to facilitate and attract the setting up of family offices in Malaysia, widening the definition of sophisticated investors to include angel investors and reducing board lot size for share trading on Bursa Malaysia,” he added.

Emphasising that market fundamentals remained strong, Awang Adek said Malaysia has a strong value proposition for foreign companies, with a solid infrastructure and talent base.

"Domestic liquidity also remained well supported, with local retail and foreign participation staying healthy throughout the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

According to him, foreign investors returned as net buyers in 2022 for the first time since 2017, while foreign investors have been net buyers in the bond market in 2023 year-to-date, recording an inflow of RM27.4 billion as of August 2023.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim earlier gave a keynote address at the Invest Malaysia New York 2023 forum organised by Bursa Malaysia.

The forum was attended by 200 financial and investment community delegates, including foreign fixed-income, equity and private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over US$40 trillion (RM188 trillion).

Also present were Bank Negara Malaysia governor Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour and Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift. — Bernama