Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Fad’l Mohamed.
PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia Bhd
will focus on the quality and size of initial public offerings (IPOs) this year and has set a target of attracting RM28bil in total IPO market capitalisation, slightly higher than the RM27.4bil achieved last year.
Chief executive officer Datuk Fad’l Mohamed said the stock exchange operator currently already had a strong pipeline of IPO deals, and it remained confident that it would be able to achieve this target.
“We did 11 Main Market listings last year, I think it looks promising and we are quite confident that we can surpass that,” he said at a media briefing yesterday.
Fad’l said while the focus would be on attracting the big companies which were above RM1bil in market size, the ACE Market remained an important platform, given that Malaysia had many strong small and medium enterprises.
Of the 60 companies listed on the local bourse last year, 11 were on the Main Market, 44 on the ACE Market, with the remainder listed on the LEAP Market.
Fad’l said Bursa had also set some other key performance indicators or KPIs for this year, including a return on equity of 27% to 30%, which he said was a new KPI, and a growth rate of more than 10% for its non-trading revenue.
Besides strengthening the IPO pipeline, he said the stock exchange operator had several other key focus areas this year which included concentrating on enhancing market vibrancy.
This included enhancing corporate performance and visibility of the public-listed companies, for example, promoting the Bursa Malaysia Quality 50 Index and broadening its product and services range which may include digital asset related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), he said.
The introduction of such ETFs will be subject to investor interest and will incorporate strong investor protection, Fad’l said.
On MSCI Inc raising concerns on ownership and free-float issues in the Indonesian market, Fad’l said Malaysia had “very clear” parameters with regards to this, and its disclosure and transparency standards remained strong.
“There is no similar concern for it (the issue) to be applied to Malaysia,” he said.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2025, Bursa’s net profit stood at RM60.8mil on revenue of RM190.9mil against a net profit of RM68.9mil on revenue of RM185.9mil for the same period in 2024.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2025 (FY25), Bursa’s net profit was also lower, coming in at RM250.2mil on revenue of RM727.7mil compared with a net profit of RM310.1mil on revenue of RM784.3mil a year earlier.
It declared a final dividend of 14 sen per share for the quarter under review which will be paid on Feb 27, bringing the total dividends for FY25 to 28 sen per share, compared with the 44 sen per share paid out a year earlier.
Fad’l said positive domestic economy indicators will continue to anchor market performance, moving forward.
“Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has indicated that Malaysia’s projected growth will be between 4% and 4.5% this year and the World Bank, in its January 2026 East Asia and Pacific Global Economic Prospects report, maintained Malaysia’s growth projection at 4.1%.
“BNM is also expected to maintain the overnight policy rate at 2.75% through 2026 following a stable growth outlook, resilient domestic demand and contained inflation. We remain optimistic that 2026 will present more meaningful upside potential,” he said.
