Stefanie Yuen Thio, who is joint managing partner of TSMP Law Corporation, was quoted in a Business Times article on Nanofilm’s small public tranche published on 28 October 2020. She said that a small public offer is “very much market practice these days”.

“It leaves less to chance and allows the issuer to determine with certainty how successful the IPO will be,” she explained.

Without a history of similar tech listings, it is “hard to predict how well-received the IPO would be to retail investors”, said Ms Yuen Thio, who added that more shares tend to be allocated to institutional investors to secure their interest.

“If the IPO is heavily oversubscribed and the price is thus well supported, I’m sure there’s money to be made,” she said. “That may be better than a less-enthusiastic reception at IPO, which may lead to a more humdrum post-IPO performance.”