Singapore's stock market is once again throwing down the gauntlet to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing after British insurer Prudential applied for a secondary listing in Singapore from May 11, having already won approval for a primary listing in Hong Kong from the same date.
This is the latest round in a series of battles between the two cities' stock exchanges. Last year, Singapore Exchange announced plans to launch a dark pool trading platform that would trade overseas stocks, including Hong Kong stocks.
Dark pools are electronic trading platforms that allow institutional investors to operate without their identity being disclosed.
The two bourses already compete in a range of investment products.
The Singapore secondary listing was confirmed by Prudential yesterday after it had already secured HKEx's approval for its primary listing in the territory by way of introduction.
Both shares will begin trading on May 11 while its London listing will remain unchanged. The listings in the two Asian cities will not raise funds but are aimed at widening its Asian investor base to support a massive US$21 billion rights issue to finance its US$35.5 billion purchase of US rival American International Assurance (AIA) from insurance giant AIG.
'A secondary listing in Singapore is complementary to the Hong Kong listing and provides further evidence of Prudential's commitment to the region,' Tidjane Thiam, Prudential's group chief executive, said.