DBS Vickers Securities is the undisputed leader among Singapore’s local securities houses, with its only real competition coming from international firms.
The broker does not take its position for granted, simply letting business come to it. With Kenneth Tang, global head, institutional business, in charge, DBS Vickers is able to capture business from Singapore’s hungry institutional and retail investors by trading in a large mix of securities.
The firm also benefits from having DBS, the dominant local bank, as its parent. During our awards period, the bank worked on 26 equity capital markets deals on the Singapore Exchange, worth a combined $11.6 billion, equal to 93% of the equity raised in the past 12 months, according to Dealogic data.
That helped DBS Vickers book S$752 million ($551 million) in net trading income for the first six months of this year, up 14% from S$659 million in the second half of 2019, and down just 6% year on year.
Net income from investment securities surged 260% from S$184 million in 2019’s first half to S$663 million for the same period of 2020.
DBS Vickers has long staked a claim to the largest portion of Singapore’s securities trading business and it has shown it can still generate growing returns from the market.