Overall Pipeline Malaysian Capital Raising Expected At US$17.6 Bln This Year

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian capital market is healthy despite the current volatility in the economy, with the overall pipeline for capital raising expected to be about US$17.68 billion (RM75 billion) this year. (US$1 = RM4.23) Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia, Ranjit Ajit Singh, said out of the RM75 billion, about RM70 billion would be from the bond market and the rest from the equity market. "For the last few years, we have about RM90 billion capital raised from the initial public offerings and the bond market," he told reporters after the launch of the World Capital Markets Symposium here Thursday. The two-day symposium is a platform to promote informed debate on the capital market led by global opinion leaders, policymakers, domain experts and market leaders. Ranjit said the volatility in the economy was a global phenomena affecting many emerging markets and for the Malaysian capital market to have a capital-raising pipeline of about RM75 billion was quite encouraging "Any market, both domestic and foreign, that is open and committed to having investor participation must be prepared to face volatility in their market. "Malaysia has demonstrated that its market is resilient and developed a very diversified financial system, with RM1 trillion bond market and RM1.3 trillion equity market currently," he said. -- BERNAMA