As part of SGX’s ongoing efforts to improve the overall quality of listed companies in Singapore, SGX had introduced a SGX Watch-list a few years ago to highlight persistent loss making companies.
The admission criteria to get into this Watch-list includes:
- Having pre-tax losses for the three consecutive most recently completed financial years; and
- Having an average daily market capitalization of less than $40 million over the last 120 market days on which trading was not halted or suspended.
There will be a quarterly review to identify companies that meets these criteria.
Once admitted into this Watch-list, the company will need to submit an application (upon meeting the criteria of Rule 1314) within 24 months after it was placed onto the Watch-list, failing which it might be forced to delist or trading of its shares might be suspended.
Such a forced delisting is often an unhappy affair for minority shareholders as the company will usually not have the money to make a decent delisting offer.
Under Rule 1314, the company will need to show :
- pre-tax profit for the latest financial year with a market capitalization of at least S40 million or more over the last 120 market days; or
- cumulative pre-tax profit of at least $7.5 million for the last three years, and a minimum pre-tax profit of $1 million for each of those three years; or
- cumulative consolidated pre-tax profit of at least $10 million for the last one or two years.
The Watch-list rules do not apply to investment funds, real-estate investment trusts, business trusts, global depository receipts (GDRs) and secondary-listed companies listed on the Mainboard.