Liquidnet, the institutional trading network, is continuing its expansion in high-growth markets by enabling institutional investors to trade securities listed in Thailand.
The Thailand launch is the 42nd market globally for Liquidnet and the 10th market in Asia Pacific, further boosting the number of investment opportunities available for more than 740 of the world’s asset management firms.
The launch comes amid growing demand from Liquidnet members to invest in dynamic emerging markets in Southeast Asia and source liquidity they need on a large scale.
Lee Porter (pictured), head of Asia Pacific for Liquidnet, says: “Liquidnet is helping upgrade the investing infrastructure in emerging markets, such as Thailand, as our global members are seeking new investment opportunities which offer higher growth potential and diversification. The launch follows Liquidnet successfully opening up trading in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, which have provided investors access to large blocks of natural liquidity.”
The launch also comes as Thailand’s equity market rose to fresh highs in March 2013 and ranked as Asia’s best performing market in 2012, followed by the Philippines. Thailand’s GDP in 2012 grew 6.4 per cent as the government boosted infrastructure spending and amid rising domestic consumption and higher private sector investment.
“Thailand is another milestone for Liquidnet as we celebrate our fifth anniversary in Asia, highlighting our ongoing growth, particularly in emerging markets,” says Porter. “Today we offer access to more than 70 per cent of the world’s exchange listed public companies and we will continue to open-up new markets for institutional investors and bring down barriers to trading in high demand markets.”
Richard Coulstock, head of dealing at Eastspring Investments in Singapore, which is a Liquidnet member, says: "Thailand is, in my personal view, a market where spread and liquidity issues can lead to high market impact costs, so the introduction of Liquidnet is a development I welcome. The ability to cross blocks at mid-market levels with no market impact could benefit our underlying clients and I have clearly seen the benefits of this in other markets.”
Liquidnet announced record volumes in Asia Pacific for Q1 2013 with principle traded rising 20 per cent to USD5bn for the first time. Daily liquidity surged from USD8.4bn to USD10.4bn a day, on average during Q1 2013, highlighting growing confidence in Asia Pacific equities. Average execution size in Q1 2013 across Asia Pacific was up 32 per cent to USD1.26m. In comparison, the average trade size on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in Q1 2013 was around USD5,000.
