: May 25, 2023
Almost 25 years after Malaysian shares abruptly ceased to be traded in Singapore in an episode that has become known as the infamous CLOB International saga, local stock exchange officials are launching a new, but roughly similar initiative that will allow investors here to gain exposure to companies listed not in Malaysia this time, but instead on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), through a novel instrument known as a Singapore Depository Receipt (SDR).
However, although the intention of launching SDRs is the same as CLOB, namely they are meant to broaden the scope of investments available in the Singapore market to include overseas-listed companies, that is where the similarity ends.
First, CLOB was not recognised by the Malaysian authorities as an official market for Malaysian shares as it was an over-the-counter (OTC) segment that was launched hurriedly in 1990 after the split of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore stock exchange. In this case, both the exchanges, SET and SGX, stand ready to help resolve any problems investors may face.
As such, it had to be eventually shut down in 1998 during the height of the Asian Financial Crisis when the Malaysian government declared CLOB to be an illegal market and ordered the migration of all shares back to the KL stock exchange.
In contrast, SGX is launching SDRs with the blessing of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand under the Thailand-Singapore DR (Depository Receipt) Linkage between SGX and SET that was announced in 2021.
Furthermore, more links can be expected with other Asean exchanges, all with the approval of the respective regulators.
Second, unlike stocks traded on CLOB that were mainly speculative second-liners, the three that have been selected for the initial launch on 30 May, namely Airports of Thailand, food retailer CP All and energy play PTT Exploration & Production, are all large cap blue chips which are constituents of the benchmark SET50 Index.
There is also every reason to believe that future SDRs will be issued on similar large quality companies whose shares are actively traded on the SET. In other words, instead of low-quality, pure speculative plays which comprised the bulk of CLOB shares, the new link with the Thai market should see Singapore investors able to gain exposure to the best companies on the SET.
https://sias.org.sg/latest-updates/commentary-sdrs-is-this-another-clob/