SGX RegCo publishes observations of Catalist sponsors to highlight areas for improvement
29 September 2020
On 19 August 2020, Singapore Exchange Regulation (“SGX RegCo”) released the inaugural “Findings and Recommendations on Continuing Sponsorship Work”. The publication aims to highlight areas for improvement following its observations from reviews and inspections of Catalist sponsors.
The Catalist regime has two types of sponsors: (1) full sponsors, which generally conduct introducing activities including preparing companies for an initial public offering (“IPO”) on Catalist, and (2) continuing sponsors, which work with companies on continuing listing obligations. A total of 20 sponsors are qualified to perform continuing sponsorship work, of which 16 can also conduct introducing work.
The publication discusses four areas of continuing sponsorship work, namely:
- Client acceptance: Due diligence standards for continuing sponsorship work
- Assessment of suitability of board and key management of sponsored issuers
- Continuous monitoring of sponsored issuers
- Conflict of interest and sponsor independence
The publication is part of SGX RegCo’s initiatives to provide transparency on its expectations and to raise standards across the market community. Other similar efforts with sponsors include the annual dialogue on IPO and continuing sponsorship activities and one-on-one engagements with certain sponsors to address key concerns and issues.
Reference materials
The following materials are available on the Singapore Exchange website www.sgx.com: