Several veteran staffers of the Singapore Exchange are leaving as the bourse tries to revive its flagging equities business, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ms Frieda Choong, who runs the team in charge of initial public offering (IPO) approvals, and Ms June Sim, who heads listing compliance at the exchange’s regulatory arm, are leaving, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public.
Mr Nico Torchetti, a former HSBC Holdings banker who heads SGX’s operations and market services, is also departing, the people said. All have worked at SGX for at least a decade.
Ms Eliza Tan, who has been in the listing compliance division, will take over Ms Choong’s position as head of IPO admissions, the people said. Mr Michael Tang, head of listing policy and product admission at the Singapore Exchange Regulation, is set to succeed Ms Sim. The changes will take effect in the second quarter.
An SGX spokeswoman said the firm is “continuously strengthening” its talent bench at all levels to ensure it is well-positioned for the future, in response to queries from Bloomberg News. The teams built by the trio leave SGX in “very capable hands,” she added.
Ms Choong and Ms Sim didn’t respond to e-mails and messages on LinkedIn requesting for comments, while Mr Torchetti declined to comment.
The changes come as some insiders at the firm have cast doubts on a broad effort by the Singapore government to revive the nation’s stock market. The IPO unit’s performance targets include more than doubling the number of new listings from seven in the last fiscal year that ended in June 2024, and preventing more delistings. Some SGX staffers believe the goals are unrealistic and impossible to achieve, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
SGX’s capital markets co-head Matthew Song left in the second half of 2024 after being in that role for only a year. The former investment banker had been at the exchange operator since 2018. Several less senior staffers from the bourse’s IPO unit have also been scouted by external firms recently, people familiar with the matter said.
The exchange has struggled for years to get more companies to go public in the city-state, and delistings have frequently outnumbered new debuts. There were only four IPOs on SGX in 2024 totalling US$34.4 million (S$46.1 billion), the second-lowest in more than two decades, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Just last week, the local sponsor of Paragon Reit offered to take it private.
A government-led review group last week proposed using tax breaks for companies and fund managers to encourage local listings, and the launch and growth of funds that invest substantially in domestic equities.
Shares of SGX fell on Feb 14 after some analysts said the initial measures proposed by the group were disappointing. Some market participants have called for Singapore’s government to divert billions in public funds into the local stock market to help lift valuations more broadly.
The Straits Times Index in 2024 posted its best performance since 2017 with a 17 per cent gain, and has risen further in 2025, led by a rally in bank shares. The bulk of the Singapore stock market’s trading volume is concentrated in the 30 stocks in the benchmark, and the lack of liquidity in mid-and-small cap names is another issue that the government-led task force is trying to address. BLOOMBERG
Join ST’s Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.