Singapore’s Q1 investment banking fees hit 3-year high of US$187.8 million

[SINGAPORE] Investment banking fees in Singapore reached about US$187.8 million in the first quarter of 2026, marking an 8.2 per cent year-on-year increase and the strongest opening quarter for the industry in three years.

The London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) Singapore Investment Banking Review report for Q1 on Thursday (Apr 2) showed that Citi was the top fee earner in Singapore’s investment banking league table. It received US$23.9 million, or a 12.7 per cent wallet share of the total fee pool.

Equity capital markets (ECM) underwriting fees totalled US$57.33 million, which LSEG noted as “rising more than sevenfold” from a year ago.  

Advisory fees from completed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, meanwhile, fell 48.5 per cent to US$36.2 million, marking the “lowest year-to-date level since 2020”. 

Debt capital markets fees declined 42 per cent to US$35.5 million after reaching a record high in 2025. Syndicated lending fees grew 69.9 per cent from the same period last year to US$58.76 million.

For ECM, overall equity issuance proceeds totalled US$2.7 billion, marking the strongest start for the segment since 2013. 

The three initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Singapore Exchange during the quarter raised a 13-year-high figure of US$791.9 million.

LSEG noted that the US$944.3 million IPO of UI Boustead Reit , which included public and private placement tranches, is the “largest offering so far this year and the biggest in the region since 2017”.

By sector, real estate issuers accounted for 81.5 per cent of ECM proceeds, raising US$2.2 billion, supported by substantial real estate investment trust (Reit) offerings. Four of the top five deals this year came from Reits.

The high-technology sector followed, with a 14.6 per cent market share, raising US$388.9 million. Healthcare came in third, contributing 3.4 per cent of the total proceeds. 

DBS Group took the top position in the Singapore-domiciled equity, equity-linked underwriting league table for Q1, with US$564.4 million in related proceeds, LSEG said.

As for debt capital markets, primary bond offerings from Singapore-domiciled issuers reached US$8.8 billion, a 30.7 per cent decline from a year earlier.

This was dominated by Singaporean issuers from the financial sector, which captured a 72.8 per cent market share worth US$6.3 billion. Activity was supported by major offerings from DBS Bank, UOB and OCBC.

In the primary bond market, the number of issues fell 30 per cent to a three-year low.

Meanwhile, M&A transactions involving Singapore hit an all-time high of US$51.6 billion in value. This came even as the number of announced deals declined 33.5 per cent to the lowest level since 2015.

Five transactions above US$1 billion contributed US$41.5 billion, accounting for over 80 per cent of quarterly activity.

Domestic M&A activity trebled to US$7.2 billion, marking the strongest Q1 result since 2020. Outbound M&A reached a record US$33.7 billion, while inbound M&A grew 6.6 per cent year on year to US$3.5 billion.

By sector, high technology was the most targeted industry involving Singapore by value, capturing a 74.4 per cent market share worth US$38.4 billion.

This was followed by telecommunications, where dealmaking totalled US$3.9 billion, and real estate, which was up 69.7 per cent year on year at US$2.3 billion.

Morgan Stanley topped the league table for M&A involving Singapore, with related transactions amounting to US$8.3 billion.