Singapore Stock Exchange – Keeping the marketplace available and accessible to business

SGX has been proactively managing the COVID-19 situation, following closely the advisories from the Ministry of Health and the relevant regulatory agencies. We have taken a holistic approach to maintain a safe working environment and strengthen resiliency. 

Loh Boon Chye, Chief Executive Officer, SGX 

“Beyond our immediate focus on the health and well-being of our employees, we are working with stakeholders across the financial community to ensure that our marketplace remains robust, uninterrupted and accessible. With COVID-19, news and information move rapidly – investors must be given the opportunity to react with confidence and manage their portfolio risks efficiently. As a key part of Singapore’s financial market infrastructure, it is important that we reinforce the nation’s position and relevance as a global financial hub, particularly if the current situation is prolonged. We have always stood by this belief: market stress is temporary, but resilience and trust in an orderly and high-quality market will stand the test of time.”

SGX has been working with the wider capital markets industry to understand their practical difficulties during this period. To support our listed companies, SGX RegCo announced last month that it would allow issuers with a 31 December financial year-end, up to 30 June 2020 to hold AGMs to approve their 31 December 2019 (FY Dec 2019) financial results. The Waiver will be granted to issuers subject to notification to SGX RegCo and fulfilment of certain criteria. This Waiver is in addition to the 7 February 2020 announcement that companies with their principal place of business in the PRC or have business with significant operations in the PRC, will have up to 30 June 2020 to hold their AGMs.

Following the recent MOH’s advisories on social distancing and travel restrictions, we recognise it is now even harder for companies to arrange in-person AGMs. 

SGX RegCo has announced the following measures and guidance, either on its own or jointly with statutory agencies, which are relevant to the COVID-19 situation: 

• SGX RegCo grants automatic 60-day extension for issuers to hold AGMs – 7 April 2020
• FAQs on guidance on general meetings – 1 April 2020
• ACRA, MAS and SGX RegCo update guidance on general meetings – 31 March 2020
• Guidance on safe distancing measures for issuers when conducting meetings – 25 March 2020 
• SGX RegCo provides guidance on holding of general meetings amid COVID-19 – 19 March 2020
• SGX RegCo gives additional two months to issuers to hold AGMs due to concerns about large-group meetings amid COVID-19 – 27 February 2020 
• SGX RegCo gives issuers up to 30 June 2020 to hold AGMs to approve FY Dec 2019 results amid 2019-nCoV situation – 7 February 2020

In addition, SGX will provide a grant of up to S$5,000 per company to all qualifying Mainboard and Catalist companies, to help defray the additional costs of organising AGMs in light of the new MOH guidelines. This ‘AGM Facilitation Grant’ will cover all AGM-related expenses incurred between 16 March 2020 and 15 March 2021, such as augmenting physical AGMs with video conferencing, additional logistics such as on-site temperature taking or pre-AGM shareholder communication, amongst others.

For further information then visit https://www.sgx.com/keeping-marketplace-available-and-accessible-you