OREANDA-NEWS. Singapore Exchange (SGX) launched an independent research report covering the retail sector in four ASEAN countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). This is part of SGX’s on-going efforts to educate and keep investors better informed of the sectors that are covered by its listed companies.  

Titled “ASEAN RETAIL: Overview, Trends and Outlook, with a focus on SGX-listed Companies”, the independent research report was commissioned by SGX and developed by research firm Frost and Sullivan. The report indicated growth potential for ASEAN’s retail industry, anchored on rising middle-class consumers, increasing spending power and rising e-commerce sales.

The report is segmented into six retail subsectors and for each, covers an in-depth analysis of the key sector drivers and an overview of the SGX-listed companies that are in these sectors.

Consumer companies make up the biggest proportion of SGX-listed companies. There are a total of 162 consumer companies listed on SGX, across subsectors such as Retail, Food & Beverage and Agri-commodities, with total market capitalisation of more than S$140 billion. Of these 162 consumer companies, 43 are in the retail sector, with combined market capitalisation of S$30 billion.

Simon Lim, Head of Equity Capital Market (Sectors), SGX, said, “The Consumer sector has always been one of SGX’s focused sectors. Despite headwinds facing the retail sector recently, we recognised the need to keep investors informed of the sector’s longer-term growth outlook in ASEAN, which continues to be backed by strong demographic and macroeconomic fundamentals. The emergence of e-commerce also presents an exciting growth opportunity for the sector. “

In addition to the launch of this research report, on 28 June 2016, SGX also held a Consumer sector corporate access day for 48 institutional investors and a Retail sector investor education seminar which was attended by about 200 retail investors.