Asia Pacific depositary receipt capital raising activity expected to grow steadily in 2011

J.P. Morgan expects to see continued growth in depositary receipt (DR) capital raising activities across Asia Pacific, according to its ‘Asia Pacific Year in Review 2010’ DR report.

The annual report, which includes analysis of DR trends over the past 12 months along with an outlook on the coming year, highlighted a number of key areas in which activity was expected to rise. These included Hong Kong’s HDR market as a destination for global companies seeking to tap Asia’s growth story; the further development of emerging markets within Asia Pacific in terms of capital raising activities, and an increase in the number of issuers from China and Singapore seeking to list DRs on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The positive outlook for the Asia Pacific DR market follows a strong 2010 as compared with 2009, despite a challenging 12 months that saw ongoing headwinds from Europe’s sovereign debt concerns, policy tightening in emerging markets, uncertainty around the withdrawal of monetary stimuli and mixed economic data from a number of key markets.

Some highlights within J.P. Morgan’s ‘Asia Pacific Year in Review 2010’ report include:

* Asia Pacific DR trading value increased 14.5% to USD 882 billion
* 91 issuers from 8 Asia Pacific markets launched new sponsored DR programs
* 72 Asia Pacific issuers raised USD 5.4 billion through DR IPOs in New York, Luxembourg, London and Singapore, versus 26 IPOs that raised USD 4 billion in 2009
* The China & India markets saw 36 and 34 IPOs respectively – a new record
* The U.S. remained the preferred location for DR capital raising

J.P. Morgan is committed to working closely with its clients to design and implement customized depositary receipt programs to achieve their strategic goals and facilitate DR liquidity. J.P. Morgan, which launched the world’s first DR program in 1927 for Selfridges and the first DR program in Asia in 1961 for Sony, continues to serve as depositary receipt bank for leading companies throughout the region. J.P. Morgan provides a full range of ADR and Global Depositary Receipt (“GDR”) services to issuers seeking to have their equity traded on exchanges beyond their home markets.