Bursa Malaysia Aims for 40 Listings a Year, CEO Yusli Says

By Chan Tien Hin

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bursa Malaysia Bhd., operator of the nation’s exchange, said it aims to attract as many as 40 new listings a year as the easing of investment rules in the country helps draw foreign investors.

Bursa attracted 23 listings last year and 26 in 2007, down from 40 three years ago, according to its Web site. Only one sold shares for the first time in the first half, it added.

“Over the next six months, if we get the same number as last year, that will be good,” Yusli Yusoff, Bursa’s chief executive officer, said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. “I don’t see why we can’t continue the momentum, I’ve always said that in any year, we should be looking at 30 to 40 companies.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak last month eased investment rules governing initial public offerings and takeovers, scrapping the need for overseas companies and publicly traded Malaysian businesses to set aside 30 percent of their equity to local ethnic Malay investors.

Najib, who took office in April, is overhauling the Southeast Asian nation’s financial markets to attract investors and revive an economy that’s facing its first contraction in a decade. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI has risen 30 percent this year, lagging behind regional markets.

The measure’s gap with Southeast Asian indexes may widen. Macquarie Group Ltd. said in a report today that investors should “take profit” in Malaysian stocks as “liquidity and earnings upgrades are showing signs of fatigue.”

‘Big Ones’

Bursa said more than 20 companies are already in the “pipeline” for initial share sales, including a handful of businesses from China, with more expected following the easing of investment rules.

“We expect companies who previously may not have wanted to come to the market because of this condition to now come forward,” Yusli said today. “I want some big ones this year.”

The bourse said discussions with Southeast Asia’s stock exchanges to develop an electronic trading link connecting five markets in the next two to three years are at a “fairly advanced stage.”

Southeast Asia’s stock exchanges signed a preliminary agreement on Feb. 23 to develop a trading link to boost competitiveness and lure more overseas funds into the region.