When I first worked here, Singapore used to be a very nice hotel you lived in at the weekends while you did deals around the region, says Tommy Tan, head of Asia Pacific corporate finance at Merrill Lynch in Singapore. Now the situation has reversed and getting the business in Singapore is critical.
Tans sentiment demonstrates one of the most striking changes to have occurred in Asia over the past few years namely that in Singapores efforts to become a regional financial center, the domestic capital markets have mushroomed.
Perhaps the biggest reason why Singapore Inc. now uses the domestic capital markets in a much more efficient and forthright way is...
