Raymond Cheung
Chartered Actuary · CRO · Board Adviser · Singapore
The Global Listing Board now lets a company list on SGX and Nasdaq at the same time under one prospectus and a harmonised rulebook. Boards weighing it are focused on the fundraising upside. The governance question, who actually reconciles two disclosure clocks in real time,is the one I would ask first.
The SGX-Nasdaq Global Listing Board, enabled by the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Act 2026, lets a company list concurrently on both exchanges under one prospectus and a harmonised set of listing rules, solving the sequencing and cost problem that has delayed dual listings for years. As CEO of Basel Medical Group when it listed on Nasdaq, I know what building disclosure governance to US institutional standards actually requires: an audit committee with the capability to function under both MAS and SEC expectations, management with genuine SEC-style disclosure specificity, and a cross-market escalation process for the moments when a US-triggered event needs an immediate SGXNet response. What the Global Listing Board harmonises is process, not governance capability: the rulebook standardises forms and timelines, but the board's ability to exercise real-time oversight across two active disclosure regimes is something that takes months to build and the framework does not shortcut. Boards weighing the GLB should spend as much time on the governance readiness question as on the fundraising access question, because the framework will not protect a board that underbuilt the second.
What the GLB actually removes
The mechanics are genuinely useful. A single prospectus and harmonised timelines mean a company no longer has to sequence a Nasdaq listing after an SGX one, or run two separate offering processes months apart. Retail allocation requirements and a mandate for timely SGXNet disclosure of US-side material announcements were built in specifically so Singapore shareholders are not structurally disadvantaged relative to US ones. For a board that has watched a promising growth company delay a US listing for two or three years because running both processes sequentially was too expensive, this is a real unlock.
“A harmonised rulebook tells you when to disclose. It does not tell your board who is awake at 6am Singapore time when a US-triggered disclosure event needs an SGX-compliant announcement within the hour.”
The part the framework does not solve
What the GLB harmonises is process, not governance capability. A company on the GLB is still subject to two active disclosure regimes running on overlapping but not identical clocks, two regulators with different enforcement postures, and two investor bases reading the same announcement with different expectations of what it should contain. Nothing about a single prospectus builds the muscle inside a board to make that work continuously, not just at IPO. That muscle, a committee that actually understands both regimes, management that has internalised US-grade disclosure specificity, a genuine escalation path for a US-side event that needs an immediate SGX response, is exactly what took us real time to build for a single listing, and the GLB does not shortcut it for two.
- Before deciding to list on the GLB, ask who on the board and in management already has working fluency in SEC-style disclosure specificity, not just SGX compliance
- Build the cross-market disclosure escalation path, who decides, who drafts, who signs off,before admission, not after the first US-triggered event catches the board flat-footed
- Treat the harmonised rulebook as the floor, not the governance plan: it standardises the forms, it does not standardise the judgment
The Global Listing Board is a genuinely good piece of market infrastructure, and I expect more Singapore companies to use it over the next few years. But I would tell any board excited about the fundraising access to spend as much time this quarter on the disclosure governance question as on the roadshow, because the framework will not stop you from finding out the hard way which one you underbuilt.
Common Questions
What is the SGX-Nasdaq Global Listing Board?
The Global Listing Board (GLB) is a joint SGX-Nasdaq initiative, enabled by the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Act 2026, that lets a company list concurrently on both exchanges under one prospectus and a harmonised set of listing rules. It sets minimum fundraising and market capitalisation thresholds, requires a minimum retail share allocation, and mandates timely SGXNet disclosure of US-side material announcements.
Does the Global Listing Board reduce governance requirements for a dual listing?
No. It harmonises process, one prospectus, aligned timelines and submission requirements,but a GLB-listed company is still subject to two active disclosure regimes and two regulators. Boards still need genuine SEC-grade disclosure capability and a cross-market escalation process; the framework does not build that capability for them.
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About the author
Raymond Cheung is a Chartered Actuary, C-suite executive and board adviser with more than 20 years of experience across Asia in risk management, insurance, ESG and corporate governance. He is the CEO of CER Consultancy and an accredited trainer at SMU Academy and the Singapore College of Insurance.