KUALA LUMPUR (March 18): The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) expects a "healthy pipeline" of around 30 initial public offerings (IPOs) for 2021 compared with 19 a year earlier as an IPO is still seen as a good way for companies to raise funds for expansion and to improve their corporate standing despite the Covid-19 pandemic-driven disruption on businesses.

SC chairman Datuk Syed Zaid Albar said today the Covid-19 outbreak and disruption on businesses have affected fundraising activities and that "significant uncertainties still remain which will impact businesses' decision to list".

Syed Zaid was speaking at a virtual media conference on the SC's 2020 Annual Report, which was published today.

Also present at the media conference was SC executive director for market and corporate supervision Kamarudin Hashim.

Kamarudin said the SC expects issuances of corporate bonds and Islamic bonds or sukuk to be in the range of RM100 billion to RM110 billion in 2021 as anticipation of economic recovery leads to expectation of increased private investment.

"We see continued economic recovery, which is going to lead to increased private investment as business confidence increases.

"Certainly, the present conducive financing landscape may also persuade issuers to raise their issuance at a much lower financing cost," he said.

According to him, the SC's 2021 bond issuance forecast also took into account "the growth of quasi-government corporate bonds in 2021 amid the resumption of large infrastructure projects".

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