Schemes and Initiatives
 Published Date: 17 September 2021

Grant for Equity Market Singapore Scheme

MAS introduced the Grant for Equity Market Singapore (GEMS) scheme to support listings and expand the equity research ecosystem in our public equity market. GEMS has two components: (i) a Listing Grant that helps issuers defray listed related expenses; (ii) a Research Development Grant that supports research houses to enhance research coverage of Singapore-listed companies and boost the development of Singapore’s equity research ecosystem.

Grant Details

1. The Listing Grant supports potential IPO (Table 1) and ETF issuers (Table 2) to list in Singapore by defraying part of their listing-related expenses. The criteria are as follows:

Table 1 - IPOs

   Details
Listing Board SGX Mainboard Catalist
Qualifying Issuances

Initial Public Offerings (“IPOs”) and secondary listings, including Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)[1] , Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”) and Business Trusts (“BTs”) (with REITs and BTs subject to a cap), and Reverse Takeovers (“RTOs”) on the Singapore Exchange (“SGX”)

Issuers with an IPO, secondary listing or RTO

 
Funding Level

All listings, including secondary listings, with concurrent fund raising:

Market Capitalisation

Funding

S$1 billion and above

70% co-funding of eligible expenses with a grant cap of S$2 million

Below S$1 billion

70% co-funding of eligible expenses with a grant cap of S$1 million


Secondary listings (minimum market capitalisation of S$1 billion and above) with fund raising at a later date after listing:

Fund raising

Funding

Within 6 months

70% co-funding of follow-on fund-raising expenses with a grant cap of S$1.5 million

Between 6 - 12 months

70% co-funding of follow-on fund-raising expenses with a grant cap of S$1 million

No fund-raising or fund-raising 12 months[2] after listing

70% co-funding of eligible listing expenses with a grant cap of S$500,000

 

All listings with concurrent fund raising:

20% co-funding of eligible expenses, with a grant cap of S$300,000, regardless of market capitalisation
Eligible Expenses   

Eligible expenses[3] refer to the business spending made to Singapore based providers incurred by the issuer that are directly attributable to a qualifying issuance as deemed appropriate by MAS, including but not limited to the following:

  • Underwriting and placement fees;
  • Issue manager and sponsor fees;
  • Audit fees;
  • Legal fees;
  • Intangible assets valuation and evaluation related expenses[4] ;
  • Independent market research fees;
  • SGX listing fees; and
  • Sustainability Report fees[5]

Table 2 -ETFs


  Details

Qualifying

Issuances


  

ETFs which are primary listed on SGX


(i)  The ETF must be a primary listing on SGX. For avoidance of doubt, this includes:


a.  ETFs domiciled in other jurisdictions but have its primary listing on SGX,

and excludes:

b.  Feeder funds that feed into a master ETF on another exchange, and

c. Cross-listed ETFs.


(ii)   ETFs that have obtained the SZSE-SGX or SSE-SGX ETF Product Link Listing Grants will not be eligible for the GEMS scheme, and vice versa.


(iii)  The ETF should remain listed on SGX for at least 2 years. This will be monitored by SGX and MAS reserves the right to claw back the funding should the ETF be delisted before this 2-year period ends.


(iv)  Marketing plans and promotional material of the ETF must be included in the application submission for the grant.

Funding Level

(i)    For listings with an Initial Offer Period ("IOP"), MAS will fund S$100,000.


(ii)   For listings without an IOP, MAS will fund S$50,000.


2. The Research Development Grant supports efforts to expand Singapore’s research coverage of listed companies. The criteria are as follows: 

  Details
Eligible Applicants
  • Financial institutions, including brokers, fund managers, venture capital firms, private equity firms, private banks, credit rating agencies with equity research capabilities, and independent research providers based in Singapore; including those that serve Accredited and Institutional Investors.

  • To join the scheme, financial institutions/research houses will need to hold the requisite license, such as a Financial Adviser’s licence, or a Capital Markets Services License with an exempt Financial Adviser status to disseminate r esearch reports to investors (Retail, Accredited/Institutional).  Please ensure that your firm holds the requisite licence and confirm your eligibility with SGX before submitting your application. 
Funding Level 

Reimbursement

  • Funding is on a per-report basis, and this count resets annually.
  • Basic Tier: Eligible applicants can apply for the GEMS Research Development Grant if they produce a minimum of 20 equity research reports in a year. In this tier, we fund S$3,000 for each report written.

  • Enhanced Tier: Eligible applicants must produce at least 40 equity research reports. Applicants can claim S$4,000 from the grant per equity research report from the 40th report, capped at the 80th report. 

 Grant for Equity Market Singapore Scheme
Qualifying Reports

Research Reports

  • Eligible equity research reports must be authored or co-authored by Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents, with at least 50%[6] by Singapore Citizens.
 

How to Apply

Interested applicants can write to fsdf_ext@mas.gov.sg  for more information.

  • Applicants of Listing Grant can submit their applications no longer than three months after the issuance or listing date.
  • Applicants of Research Development Grant should express interest and submit their claims to fsdf_ext@mas.gov.sg  and SGX gemsresearch@SGX.com , no later than three months after the application anniversary (i.e., 12 months from the date of application or anniversary).
  • Applications with incomplete information or do not meet the criteria stated above will result in longer processing time.
  • The GEMS scheme will be valid from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026 (both dates inclusive).

 

 

 

[1] SPACs will only qualify for one-time claim upon listing and not at the stage of de-SPAC. 

[2] Issuer must submit the GEMS Listing Grant application within a maximum of 15 months from the date of their Technical Secondary listing on the SGX. If the issuer conducts a follow-on fundraising within 12 months of its listing, the GEMS Listing Grant application should be submitted three months from the date of the follow-on fundraising or within the 15-month period from the original listing, whichever occurs earlier. Each listing is limited to a single claim submission.

[3] Excludes all applicable Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) and other equivalent taxes.

[4] Intangible assets (“IA”) valuation fees are for the valuation of the IA of an issuer, usually provided by an auditor. IA evaluation fees are for the qualitative analysis and assessment of a company's IA portfolio, usually provided by intellectual property (“IP”) service providers such as legal firms which have the relevant expertise to assess IP.

[5] Issuers can submit claims for fees paid to an external consultant/reviewer for the production and issuance of a Sustainability Report for the purpose of listing on the SGX Mainboard or Catalist. Ongoing costs relating to a Sustainability Report after the listing will not be considered an eligible expense. The Sustainability Report should be prepared in accordance with the Sustainability Report requirements for SGX Mainboard and SGX Catalist listed companies/issuers set out by SGX RegCo, or any subsequent guidance by MAS or SGX. Some examples of eligible expenses include (i) Sustainability Report drafting and review fees; (ii) Sustainability Reporting assurance fees.

[6] This percentage is applied to the total number of equity research reports submitted by each eligible applicant for each claim cycle. For avoidance of doubt, the figure will always be rounded up.