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• Bourses increase their suite of services for IROs


• Stock exchanges team up with suppliers to provide discounted services


• More exchanges move to offer equity research

By Clare Harrison
IR MAGAZINE



Research offerings

Sell-side research has always been a useful tool to help issuers get on investors’ radar. Over the past few years, demand for issuer-sponsored equity research has skyrocketed. But the model suffers from drawbacks such as high costs and concerns over the independence of the research. In recognition of this, exchanges have started offering equity research with varying degrees of success.

In Malaysia and Singapore, for example, research is conducted by an external broker, which helps to improve the visibility of the firms participating in the program. Bursa Malaysia collaborates with the country’s Capital Market Development Fund to subsidize the cost of research by 50 percent.

‘Between 2004 and 2007, a grand total of 303 listed companies and 21 research houses participated in the scheme,’ comments Eddie Razak, chief executive of the Malaysian Investor Relations Association.


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This article appeared in IR Magazine in the May 2009 issue.