Self-Listing and Self-Regulation of Exchanges in Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract:     
This paper has two main objectives: first, to identify main drivers of self-listing after demutualisation in Asia-Pacific region and second, to investigate the level of outside supervision, corporate governance mechanisms of the self-listed stock exchanges. We test several hypotheses to establish the relationship between factors indicated in the literature and self-listing. Our preliminary findings show that government policies have played a significant role in listing decisions in Malaysia and Singapore. We find that those exchanges seek listing which are in need of external finance for sustaining growth in capital expenditure. Technological advancements, regional competition for new firms listings and trading volume also have significant impact on the listing decisions of the exchanges in this region. We also find that Malaysian stock exchange still has government ownership through its agencies where Australian and New Zealand Exchanges have no government ownership after listing on the exchanges. Corporate governance mechanisms also vary across the countries in this region, highlighting the tension between contested control of the government on one hand and regulatory efficiency on the other hand. Our findings have significant implications for the futures of exchanges in Asia-Pacific region.

working papers series