Singapore’s only regulated and licensed private securities exchange, 1exchange (1X), saw its first ever private company listing by boutique fund management company Aggregate Asset Management (AAM) on July 10.

AAM listed on 1X with over S$5.6 million (US$4.11 million) worth of tradeable private equities, representing approximately 5% of the company's share equity, after a short six-week campaign. Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow had advised and assisted CapBridge Platform Pte. Ltd. (CapBridge Platform) on its successful application in November 2018 to the Monetary Authority of Singapore to operate 1X.

Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific head of financial institutions, Stephanie Magnus, who is based in Singapore, led on this matter and was supported by local principal Selwyn Lim - both of whom were present at the listing ceremony at the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Commenting on the listing, Magnus says, "We are very pleased to have worked on the Recognised Market Operator licence with CapBridge Platform and 1X, and to witness this precedent-setting listing on Singapore's first private capital market. As we have said last year, it puts both 1X - and to a wider extent, Singapore - at the forefront of the growing trend of private capital raising exercises."  

Baker Mckenzie has been tracking this trend in its recent survey on The Future of Equity Capital Raising, which showed that 84% of executives surveyed are seeing early signs of a shift from public to private markets, and that 94% of executives expected to see equity crowdfunding become more important to start-up companies seeking to raise capital for growth and development.