Thanks to sweeping market reforms, return of international investors and support of the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission for Chinese companies to pursue listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), there were 119 initial public offerings (IPOs) raising more than HK$285.8 billion (or US$36.7 billion) in Hong Kong in 2025. Among them, there were at least seven US$1 billion+ offerings (including those by companies already listed in mainland China). The HKEX overtook both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq in 2025 as the No. 1 exchange for Chinese companies. 

Eager to partake in the global IPO market, the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) announced in November 2025 that it has partnered with Nasdaq to simplify the process for companies to obtain dual listings in the U.S. and Singapore. Scheduled to go live around mid-2026, the Global Listing Board will give companies with a market capitalization of S$2 billion (or US$1.6 billion) or more access to both the U.S. and Singaporean markets in a streamlined regulatory framework through a single set of documents and simplified review process. In an effort to revitalize the equities market, the Singaporean government also rolled out reforms and in February 2025, announced a S$5.0 billion (or US$3.9 billion) Equity Market Development Programme to invest in Singapore equities. It will be interesting to see if these market initiatives will also ignite interest among smaller Singaporean companies (i.e., those with less than US$1.6 billion in market capitalization) to seek SGX/Nasdaq dual listings via a traditional IPO or a business combination transaction with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) (also known as “de-SPAC”) in the coming years. 

In the U.S., there were a total of 230 IPOs greater than US$40 million in gross proceeds, raising an aggregate of US$77.4 billion (including approximately 144 SPAC IPOs raising over US$30 billion) in 2025, marking a significant rebound from 2024. We expect competition among SPACs for quality U.S. and foreign companies as their potential acquisition targets to intensify over the next 18 to 24 months. Given the latest developments in artificial intelligence, infrastructure, new energy, financial services (including fintech) and investors’ appetite in the broader tech sector in Asia, the Asia-Pacific region should continue to produce a large number of potential targets. Asian companies seeking to go public in the U.S. will also continue to find a de-SPAC an appealing alternative to a traditional IPO because of the speed to market and increased likelihood of a successful listing that a de-SPAC can typically offer.  

On the IPO front, Nasdaq has made a number of rule changes to raise its standards for the minimum public float and the public offering raise in certain new listings this past year. In March 2025, Nasdaq modified the liquidity requirements for IPOs to exclude shares registered for resale from the calculation of the required minimum Market Value of Unrestricted Publicly Held Shares (MVUPHS) because Nasdaq does not believe that resale shares contribute to liquidity to the same degree as shares sold in a public offering. In December 2025, Nasdaq increased the minimum MVUPHS requirement under the Net Income Standard on the Nasdaq Capital Market from $5 million to $15 million, and on the Nasdaq Global Market from $8 million to $15 million. In that same month, Nasdaq also adopted the new Rule IM-5101-3 giving it the expanded discretionary authority to deny an initial listing based on factors that may make a company’s securities susceptible to manipulation, even though the company meets all stated listing requirements. Where the company is located, including the availability of legal remedies to U.S. shareholders in that jurisdiction, is on the top of the non-exclusive list of factors enumerated in Rule IM-5101-3. Although it remains to be seen exactly how Nasdaq will exercise this expanded discretionary authority and to what extent companies from China or with significant ties to China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region seeking a listing on Nasdaq will be affected by this new rule, many companies in the IPO process in December 2025 have already begun facing delays caused by the exercise of this discretionary authority. In September 2025, Nasdaq also proposed new rules that, if adopted, would require companies based in China, Hong Kong and Macau to raise a minimum of $25 million in public offering proceeds to qualify for listing.   

What do all these mean? More de-SPAC activities from the Asia-Pacific region, fewer Nasdaq IPO listings from China-based companies and no more less than $15 million IPO raise by microcap companies in 2026.