ASEAN fund to be listed at two places

ASEAN fund to be listed at two places

TOKYO (AFP): A country fund targeting equities investment in member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is seeking to be listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in Japan and the Stock Exchange of Singapore, a newspaper said yesterday.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in a dispatch from Singapore that applications were being filed with both exchanges for a simultaneous listing at the end of September.

It would be the first time for a country fund to be simultaneously listed in Osaka and Singapore, the major business daily said.

Japan's Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. and its local arm Nomura Singapore Ltd. will lead underwrite the fund on both exchanges, the paper said.

ASEAN members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to the daily, the ASEAN fund is to be set up in early September with more than US$100 million in investment capital and managed by Jardine Fleming Investment Management (Singapore).

Member banks of ASEAN's bank federations are expected to put up a total of $50 million, and the Nomura group will sell more than $50 million worth of the remainder to its clients, the paper said.