Published September 30, 2008
UOB Kay Hian is top IPO underwriter
Local brokerage takes 36% of market, thanks to IPO of Li Heng
By JAMIE LEE

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UOB Kay Hian is king in the IPO underwriters market this year, conquering more than a third of the market thus far, data from Bloom- berg showed.

The local brokerage, owned by Singapore's second-largest bank, holds a strong 36.1 per cent market share for the nine months ended September.
The brokerage brought in five deals that were worth a sweet US$403 million, thanks to the US$231 million IPO deal of Chinese textile firm Li Heng Chemical Fibre Technologies.
The deal was issued by Boulton Capital Asia, which is reported to work closely with star remisiers David Loh and Han Seng Juan at UOB Kay Hian.
The brokerage also has one of the lowest weighted average fee among the top 10 brokerages, based on disclosed figures.
With an average disclosed fee of 2.79 per cent, it triumphed competitors such as Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch - which had the highest fee of 5.26 per cent - as well as CIMB-GK, Daiwa Securities and Kim Eng Securities, which charged between 2.86 per cent and 3.25 per cent.
The exceptions were Credit Suisse and DBS Group Holdings, which both charged 2.5 per cent, and Hong Leong Finance with 2.25 per cent charge.
UOB Kay Hian's ranking leaped from eighth position a year ago, when it held a 3.5 per cent market share.
The remaining market share is spread out among 17 other brokerages, with Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch sharing second place at 8.6 per cent each. Both foreign brokerages brought in one deal worth US$96 million each.
A UOB Kay Hian dealer said that the brokerage has been able to beat the big foreign players because the latter group typically chases bigger IPO deals, which are few in today's bear market.
'The foreign brokerages have toned down quite a lot this year. They are not very interested in small issues,' said the dealer.
For example, UBS ranked first last year after it brought in the biggest IPO deal last year - the US$715 million listing of China's Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. But the Swiss brokerage dropped out from the top 18 this year.
The IPO market volume has fallen 66.4 per cent to US$1.11 billion from a year ago, said Bloomberg.