SINGAPORE, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- While Singapore Exchange has enjoyed a rosy year in its business of initial public offering ( IPO), with the number of new company listing in 2010 up 26 percent compared to the year before, it still trails its counterparts in Greater China.

Throughout last year, Singapore Exchange had welcomed 39 new IPOs, which was a considerable improvement from 29 IPOs in 2009, raising a total of 11 billion Singapore dollars (8.6 billion U.S. dollars), according to its press statement released last week.

Some of the high-profile IPOs last year included home-grown airline Tiger Airways, leading European offshore designer and shipbuilder STV OSV Holdings, and the world's largest real estate IPO Global Logistic Properties. Singapore Exchange described the number of large listings from Asia and Europe had helped to expand the breadth and depth of its marketplace, and reflected the efficiency of its capital market.

The Exchange management continues to guide for a promising IPO pipeline this year, with the momentum generated by the confirmation that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT), a unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa group and which has container ports in Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong province, has chosen the Singapore bourse instead of the Hong Kong market for its listing.

Despite the latest setback, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange still dominated global IPO activity in 2010. It has maintained its position as the largest listing market by fund-raising size in the world, with about 445 billion Hong Kong dollars (57.2 billion US dollars) being raised in 2010. The figure far dwarfed that of Singapore Exchange.

According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers' latest report, Hong Kong will continue to be amongst the top IPO rankings again in 2011, with Italian fashion giant Prada SpA becoming the latest high- profile company which had announced last week to join the parade of companies listing there sometime this year.

Indeed, Singapore Exchange also trails both Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in terms of year-on-year growth and size of the IPO funds raised in 2010. During the year, the IPO funds raised in Shanghai were 180.2 billion Yuan (27.4 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 44 percent compared to 125.1 billion Yuan (19.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009. As for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, its IPO funds raised for the year totaled 298.1 billion Yuan (45.4 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 375 percent from 2009.

Considering the huge gap between Singapore Exchange and its Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai counterparts in IPO business, Singapore Exchange's recent decision to seek merge with its Australian counterpart ASX comes as no surprise, since the merge, if materialized, will create the second-largest listings venue in Asia-Pacific, which Singapore Exchange hopes may perhaps provide a more attractive destination for more potential companies looking to raise fund through IPO exercise.

But whether such strategy could work for Singapore Exchange to close the gap remains to be seen. As accountant Ernst &Young, which also predicted the current IPO momentum in Hong Kong to continue its upward trend this year, said in its research report, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will maintain its dominant position, given its proximity to the Chinese mainland and good regulatory system.