Liquidity and capital – institutional participation continues to broaden across SGX

[SINGAPORE] Ahead of the final session of February, Singapore Exchange (SGX)-listed stocks have been averaging S$1.7 billion in average daily turnover over the first two months of 2026.

Institutions have been net buyers across the industrials, real estate (excluding real estate investment trusts, or Reits), telecommunications, consumer cyclicals, technology (hardware and software), consumer non-cyclicals, and materials and resources sectors. Meanwhile, retail has been net buying the financial services, Reits, utilities, healthcare and energy/oil and gas sectors.

Across recent SGX corporate actions and results last week, Valuemax Group broadened its institutional investor base via a 34.8 million share block trade, CapitaLand India Trust (Clint) executed a S$150 million placement (2.6 times covered) to fund Bengaluru developments, and Marco Polo Marine received SGX approval for an equity placement and operational momentum to support growth.

iX Biopharma completed a placement on Feb 24, issuing 75.8 million new shares to raise gross proceeds of S$15 million. The placement was undertaken to strengthen liquidity and fund upfront working capital requirements for a newly secured US government contract, bridging the timing gap between project expenditures and reimbursement receipts to reduce execution risk.

The placement was conducted via an exempt offering to institutional and accredited investors, with no participation from directors or substantial shareholders.

Last week’s beachheads also illustrate how issuers are pairing shareholderbase initiatives with balance sheet funding and earnings delivery.

Valuemax

Valuemax Group’s executive chairman Yeah Hiang Nam and his spouse Tan Hong Yee sold 34.8 million existing shares via a block trade at S$1.16 per share, representing a 6.5 per cent discount to the previous closing price. This reduces their total interest to 81.53 per cent.

The sale attracted strong participation from long-only institutional investors, and was handled by OCBC as placement agent. Following the transaction, the vendors still control about 81.5 per cent of the company and have committed to a 90-day moratorium on further share sales, signalling continued commitment.

The block trade was undertaken to diversify and institutionalise the shareholder base, improve free float and trading liquidity, and support potential index inclusion, with no dilution since no new shares were issued.

Long-only institutional investors that participated in the block trade included abrdn Asia, Amova Asset Management Asia, Avanda Investment Management and ICH Synergrowth Fund.

Valuemax Group is one of Singapore’s largest pawnbroking and jewellery retail chains, complemented by a substantial secured and unsecured money-lending business and gold trading operations across Singapore and Malaysia.

The group delivered record financial performance in FY2024 (ended Dec 31) and then again in FY2025 with profit after tax surpassing S$100 million for the first time at S$103.6 million. This was driven by strong growth across its pawnbroking, jewellery retail and money-lending businesses.

Reflecting on the improved earnings, the board proposed a total dividend of S$0.0388 per share, a 44.8 per cent increase year on year, alongside a strengthened balance sheet with net assets of S$611.8 million and a conservative 1.43 times debt-to-equity ratio.

The average daily turnover of the stock has grown from S$39,000 in 2024 to S$190,000 in 2025 to S$799,000 in Q1 2026 to Feb 25.

Despite more than S$17 million of net institutional outflows from Singapore-listed consumer cyclical stocks in January, Valuemax Group was one of three gold-linked financial retailers that bucked the trend, attracting a combined S$8.5 million of inflows.

CapitaLand India Trust

On Feb 24, Clint announced a fully underwritten private placement that subsequently raised about S$150 million through a private placement of 124.2 million new units at S$1.208 each, which was around 2.6 times covered, reflecting strong institutional demand. The issue price represented a modest discount to market volume weighted average price, balancing investor appeal with capital discipline.

On an illustrative historical pro forma basis, the trustee-manager expects the placement to be distribution per unt (DPU)-accretive by 5.1 per cent and to reduce gearing to 36.8 per cent after deployment of proceeds, while also potentially improving trading liquidity through a larger unitholder base.

For FY2025 (ended Dec 31), Clint’s DPU increased 15 per cent from FY 2024, to S$0.0787, while H2 FY2025 DPU rose 22 per cent to S$0.0390, supported by improved operating performance and higher interest income from forward purchase assets under development.

The valuations as at Dec 31 reported a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in Clint’s portfolio property value to 266.4 billion rupees (S$3.8 billion) on a like-for-like basis, excluding the divestments of CyberVale, Chennai and CyberPearl, Hyderabad.

The management said disciplined capital recycling, a visible development pipeline and balance sheet optimisation position the trust to support steady and resilient growth into FY 2026 and beyond.

Marco Polo Marine

On Feb 24, Marco Polo Marine announced a proposed placement of up to 144.9 million new shares at S$0.145 apiece, raising up to about S$21 million in gross proceeds. With Maybank Securities as placement agent, the new shares represent about 3.9 per cent of existing issued share capital.

Net proceeds are intended to be used entirely for capex tied to business expansion, including but not limited to fleet expansion and renewal, and the placement also aims to broaden the shareholder base to potentially improve liquidity; it is offered to institutional and accredited investors and excludes directors and substantial shareholders.

Marco Polo Marine highlighted that the placement has a positive impact on net tangible assets (NTA) per share, as the new equity is being raised at a premium to existing net assets. With the S$0.145 placement price sitting well above the S$0.0636 NTA per share, the issuance lifts NTA per share to S$0.0664 cents on a pro forma basis.

As a result, the equity injection more than offsets dilution, lifting net tangible assets per share even as earnings are diluted, and strengthening the balance sheet ahead of planned fleet expansion. As at Sep 30, the group was already in a net cash position of S$9.3 million, providing balance-sheet flexibility even before the placement.

On Feb 16, Marco Polo Marine reported a strong start to its FY2026 (ended Dec 31), with Q1 FY2026 revenue rising 27 per cent, from Q1 FY2025, to S$32.8 million. This was primarily driven by a sharp expansion in its ship chartering operations following recent fleet additions. Gross profit for the quarter increased 32 per cent to S$14 million, with gross margin improving by two percentage points to 43 per cent.

The group noted that this reflected a more favourable revenue mix with a higher contribution from chartering, which carries structurally higher margins than shipyard activities. Moreover, the ship chartering segment drove Q1 FY2026 growth, with revenue rising 53 per cent year on year to S$23.2 million. This was supported by the deployment of the CSOV MP Wind Archer flagship and three additional crew transfer vessels, which lifted fleet utilisation to around 76 per cent from 71 per cent amid sustained offshore wind demand.

In February, the CSOV MP Wind Archer won the Offshore Energy Vessel of the Year Award 2026, at the Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference, Awards and Exhibition in London.

Marco Polo Marine also said that FY2026 will see a full-year contribution from the CSOV and three crew transfer vessels, compared with partial contributions in FY2025, supporting stronger topline and earnings momentum. The group also expects two new anchor handling tug supply vessels to join the fleet in 2026, expanding capacity and optionality across oil and gas, and offshore wind.

Marco Polo Marine’s pivot from shipbuilding and repair to ship chartering has more than doubled the latter’s contribution to the topline over the past decade. The Q1 FY2026 revenue mix of 71 per cent chartering and 29 per cent shipyard compared with less than 40 per cent and more than 60 per cent respectively in FY2016, underscoring the structural shift in the business.

Even so, the shipbuilding segment remains meaningful, anchored by an NT$4.68 billion (S$188 million) contract to build a 4,000 gross tonnage oceanographic research vessel for Taiwan’s National Academy of Marine Research. It is the largest shipbuilding project undertaken by the group to date.

On Feb 19, Maybank Research maintained its “buy” call on the stock with a S$0.20 target price, citing a multiyear growth phase from FY2026 to FY2030 driven by fleet expansion, offshore wind exposure and potential shipbuilding wins.

Maybank’s head of small-mid caps research, Jarick Seet, sees Q1 FY2026 as the start of a seasonal uptrend, with Q2 FY2026 expected to beat Q1 FY2026, and Q3 FY2026 likely the peak given seasonality and rising utilisation, before a typical softening in Q4. The average daily turnover of the stock has grown from S$467,000 in H1 2025 to S$3.2 million in H2 2025 to S$6.4 million in Q1 2026 to Feb 25.

The writer is the market strategist at SGX. To read SGX’s market research reports, visit sgx.com/research