By Yantoultra Ngui, Sneha Kumar and Roshan Thomas
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported on Friday its highest annual earnings since its 2000 listing and said more than 30 companies are actively preparing to go public, signaling a revival in listings amid efforts to boost the country's equities market.
Adjusted net profit for the year ended June rose 15.9% to S$609.5 million ($475.2 million), driven by higher trading volumes across equities, currencies and commodities, according to SGX.
Revenue climbed 11.7% to S$1.30 billion.
"Our IPO pipeline is the strongest in years," CEO Loh Boon Chye told Reuters after the earnings release on Friday.
"A pipeline in our definition is not about marketing to a prospect," he said. "Our pipeline is more refined, they are companies that have really considered that IPO is a route and have engaged advisers to do that."
SGX declared a final quarterly dividend of 10.5 Singapore cents per share, up from 9 cents a year earlier, and said it plans to raise dividends by 0.25 cents each quarter from FY2026 to FY2028.
Shares of SGX dropped 2.5% on Friday, but have gained about 25% year-to-date, LSEG data showed. The domestic benchmark stock index declined almost 0.8% on the day, but has climbed over 11% year-to-date.
There is growing interest from companies seeking to list on SGX, after the city-state announced measures in February to strengthen its equities market, including a 20% tax rebate for primary listings.
In July, Singapore's central bank said it will place S$1.1 billion with three asset managers as part of a S$5 billion programme under the measures to boost the stock market.
Recent listings in July include NTT DC REIT, which raised $773 million in Singapore's largest IPO since 2021, and a secondary listing by Hong Kong-listed China Medical System.
Loh said SGX's multi-asset platform is well-positioned to capture shifting investor flows amid global volatility triggered by heightened geopolitical and trade tensions, including the tariff war under U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.
SGX also plans to expand Singapore Depository Receipts (SDRs) programme, investment products that allow investors to buy shares of overseas companies directly on SGX, beyond Thailand and Hong Kong currently, Loh said.
"We look to launch SDR with Indonesia underlying in the next few months," he said. "We hope to progress with that to other ASEAN markets like Vietnam."
($1 = 1.2826 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Sneha Kumar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Leroy Leo and Kim Coghill)
