Singapore Exchange

Investment case: We expect trading volume to remain volatile in the near term,but it could rebound in FY10 as investors return to the relatively high economic growth region of Asia. Singapore, as a key financial services centre of Asia,should benefit. While securities volume has declined in recent months, derivatives volume has been increasing due to the popularity of futures in thecurrent environment.

Derivatives made up 20% of total revenue in FY08, and there is likely structural upside to this business as more OTC products are migrated onto regulated exchanges. We believe Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) strong balance sheet with a net cash position and monopolistic status make it an attractive stock to own.

Valuation: The stock trades at a 15.3x FY09E PE, in line with its historical average. Our DCF-based price target of S$9.00 assumes a WACC of 8.7% and terminal growth of 3%. We estimate the current share price is assuming average turnover of S$800m per day for the next five years.

This represents a 62% fall from FY08 turnover and a 37% drop from the FY09 average so far. While we expect turnover to remain weak going into the holiday season, we think there is potential for a rebound in January 2009 as investors reassess their investment allocations.

2009 catalysts: We think the main catalyst could be a rebound in securities turnover and we think this could come in early 2009 with some normalisation of risk aversion from current extreme levels.