Dual listing board with SGX years in the making, now drawing interest across sectors: Nasdaq veteran

SINGAPORE – The proposed Global Listing Board (GLB) by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Nasdaq has drawn “a lot of interest” from companies across sectors, said Mr Bob McCooey, vice-chairman of Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange by market value.

Speaking during a recent visit to Singapore, Mr McCooey told The Straits Times that the companies span Nasdaq’s major sectors including financial and fintech, industrial, consumer, technology and healthcare.

“All of these verticals are represented among the companies we’re talking to about this exciting opportunity,” he said.

The GLB – expected to go live in mid-2026 – aims to attract initial public offering (IPO) candidates as well as companies already listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market with a market capitalisation of at least $2 billion and an Asian nexus to also list on SGX.

Mr McCooey said falling below the $2 billion minimum market value threshold risks creating thin, fragmented trading, particularly if the bulk of shares sit in the US while only a small float is placed in Singapore.

The Nasdaq Global Select Market is Nasdaq’s top listing tier.

Mr McCooey sees the Nasdaq-SGX partnership as a way to grow the overall IPO pie by drawing in companies that have been waiting on the sidelines for an opportunity to list but were deterred by cumbersome requirements and processes.

The GLB seeks to address this by harmonising SGX and Nasdaq listing requirements, cutting regulatory friction and costs, and improving speed to market for IPO aspirants.

For Nasdaq, the initiative is less about finding the incremental dollar – as it is “not going to move the needle on its quarterly revenue” – but more about strategic positioning.

The US exchange sees itself as part of the “fundamental fabric” of the global financial system, with its businesses spanning data, indexes, market technology, surveillance and private markets alongside trading and listings, Mr McCooey said.

In that context, the GLB extends Nasdaq’s philosophy that most companies should list locally, but that a select group with global ambitions will choose an offshore venue – and Nasdaq wants to be the default choice when they do.​

In Asia, Nasdaq wants to be “truly global but really local”. It now has offices scattered around the Asia-Pacific region to ensure it can support companies through the various growth stages from private to public, Mr McCooey said.

Earlier in March, he visited Galaxy Corp – a South Korean entertainment technology company – to discuss the company’s growth strategy and the possibility of a Nasdaq IPO, according to South Korean media.

Galaxy manages stars like singer G-Dragon, actor Song Kang-ho and TV personality Kim Jong-kook.

The Nasdaq veteran revealed that the GLB was built on years of close collaboration and trust.

SGX and Nasdaq worked together, alongside market regulators from Singapore and the US, to deliver a structure that does not exist anywhere else – one that eases the IPO bottlenecks for high-growth firms that want local anchoring and Wall Street’s liquidity.

The two exchanges started from a “deep, longstanding, unique” relationship, spanning technology, surveillance and listing cooperation, which gave both sides the trust to attempt something that is hard to replicate in other markets.​ The two have been technology partners since 2003.

The longstanding relationship had seen Nasdaq and SGX sign a collaborative listings agreement aimed at facilitating dual listings on both exchanges in 2017. It was followed by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on regulatory cooperation for dual-listed issuers, which was signed in July 2020 between SGX Regulation (SGX RegCo) and Nasdaq.

The catalyst to go beyond these MOUs came in 2024, when Singapore set up the Equities Market Review Group to strengthen the local equities market.

Within weeks of the announcement, Nasdaq began engaging Singapore policymakers, regulators and market participants on ways to marry its deep US liquidity pool with Singapore’s ambitions to anchor more regional champions.

The breakthrough was recognising that any workable bridge had to solve the most painful friction points listing aspirants had complained about for years: duplicated filings, extended timelines and uncertain incremental cost.

What emerged was the GLB. Instead of preparing parallel prospectuses and satisfying two full sets of regulatory reviews, issuers need to prepare only a single prospectus in compliance with US securities laws.

It is expected that this could shave off a “significant percentage” from the cost, time and effort involved in bringing a company to market. 

“The regulatory MOU was the one that actually began the conversations between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SGX RegCo and Nasdaq Regulation, all of which brought the GLB together, because it was going to involve a lot of legal changes,” said Mr McCooey.

The GLB could happen, he noted, because MAS and the SEC had already spent years building trust and discussing frameworks, and Singapore’s regulatory standards are among the strongest in the world.

“If there is another country that came that didn’t have as high regulatory standards as Singapore’s MAS, this wouldn’t even have gotten close to first base,” he said.

Singapore’s strong regulatory environment, coupled with the Government’s financial support, is the reason why the GLB is “very difficult to replicate” elsewhere.