NetLink Trust closes flat on market debut

This article is more than 12 months old

Jul 20, 2017 06:00 am

Sexy or not, Singapore's biggest initial public offering (IPO) in six years has made quite an impact, receiving twice as many subscriptions as it could offer.

But animal spirits that might have sent the counter soaring were not out in force on its market debut yesterday. Units of NetLink NBN Trust traded flat.

Units in the business trust, which owns fibre optic cable across the island, opened at 81.5 Singapore cents when trading commenced at 3pm yesterday. This was just a whisper above its offer price of 81 cents.

Over two hours of trading, the units briefly touched a low of 80.5 cents before closing flat at 81 cents. A total of 184.4 million units changed hands, making NetLink NBN Trust the second most active counter yesterday.

Given NetLink's massive offer size of $2.3 billion, a price jump on day one was unlikely since it would take tremendous demand to outstrip the large supply of shares. The sober market reception reflects NetLink's positioning as a yield play - more of a "widows and orphans stock" than one for the punters. - THE STRAITS TIMES

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