Joint Managing Partner and Head of Corporate Stefanie Yuen Thio commented in a Lianhe Zaobao story published Friday 13 September 2019 on the Philippines and Indonesia stock exchanges proposing tax/fee cuts to attract more IPOs to the respective countries. She said: “While investors will welcome lower tax rates, those are not the principal factors that a company considers when deciding on a listing. Firstly, the company will consider the reputation, strength and stability of the stock exchange, because that adds credibility to the company. Being listed on a world-class exchange burnishes the corporate reputation of the company, and helps it with its future fund raising, whether from the capital market or from banks. An important second consideration would be the valuation it can achieve at IPO, followed by the availability of after-market fund raising support (ie whether the company will find it easy to keep up investor interest and raise public funds after listing).”