Southeast Asian economies weathered the challenging market environment in 2025, overcoming the tariff-induced uncertainties and continues to be a favoured investment destination. Such resiliency is sustaining the deal flows into the region, with data centres, renewable energy and various other projects fuelling capital markets activity across debt and equity to meet the issuers and borrowers’ funding requirements. These trends are manifested as The Asset releases the results for Southeast Asia in The Triple A Sustainable Finance Awards 2026.

Corporates turned to equity capital markets (ECM) to raise financing and this was illustrated by a pick-up in the deal volume in the IPO market. In Singapore, for instance, the IPO volume surged to over US$2.54 billion from 38 deals in 2025, according to LSEG data, compared with just US$152.33 million from 17 deals in the previous year. These included the launch of two large real estate investment trusts (Reits) – the Centurion Accommodation REIT (CAREIT), which raised S$816 million (US$637.50 million) in September, and the NTT DC REIT, which raised US$824.2 million in July.

CAREIT is the first pure-play purpose-built living accommodation Reit to be listed in Singapore with initial exposure to Singapore purpose-built worker accommodation and Australia purpose-built student accommodation sectors. Books were multiple times subscribed with strong participation from global and regional long-only funds, real estate specialists, multi-strategy funds, and private banks. NTT DC REIT was the largest IPO on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) over the past decade; it also saw Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC participating in an SGX-listed Reit IPO for the first time.

Other Singapore Reits and business trust-related companies were also active in tapping the ECM in 2025. Lendlease Global Commercial REIT raised S$280 million in November amid a choppy market environment to finance a 70% effective interest in PLQ Mall and reduce its existing debt. In August, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust launched the year’s largest equity fundraising by a Singapore Reit, raising S$600 million – of which about US$466.5 million was used to acquire the remaining 55% interest in the office and retail component of prime commercial tower CapitaSpring.

Also accessing the market to raise funds for acquisition was CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, which printed in May a S$500 million trade through a follow-on offering. Part of the proceeds were utilized to partially finance the acquisition of a data centre and a business space property – both from CapitaLand Development. Fraser Centrepoint Trust also raised S$220 million in March via private placement and preferential offering, which was upsized from the initial amount of S$200 million.

Indonesia also posted higher IPO proceeds in 2025, amounting to US$1.41 billion, compared with US$901.55 million in the previous year. PT Merdeka Gold Resources was the country’s largest IPO, raising 4.66 trillion rupiah (US$277 million) in September. The company sold 1.62 billion new shares – equivalent to 10% of its paid-up capital – at an issue price of 2,880 rupiah per share. The stock debuted strongly, with its share price surging 25% to 3,600 rupiah each on its first day of trading, hitting the upper trading limit. The net proceeds from the IPO were used as working capital for subsidiaries engaged in gold mining and processing, as well as to repay part of the company’s debt.

First green IPO in Asia

Backed by Grab, Singtel and Emtek Group, digital bank Super Bank raised 2.8 trillion rupiah in another highly successful IPO in December, which saw its share price close 24% higher on its debut trading. The funds raised were earmarked to support loan disbursement and tech development, as well as to enhance its competitiveness in the digital banking space. The IPO was 318 times oversubscribed, attracting over one million orders, reflecting strong investor demand.

Malaysia maintained its IPO momentum in 2025, although the total proceeds of US$1.39 billion were lower than the previous year’s US$1.65 billion. The country’s biggest discount retailer Eco-Shop Marketing raised US$226 million in May in what was the largest IPO since 2022, drawing interest from 10 high-quality cornerstone investors, including Eastspring Investments, AHAM Asset Management, and Lion Global.

The Philippines continued to lag behind in terms of IPO activity, with just two transactions in 2025. But one of the deals – the 34.3 billion pesos (US$581 million) share sale by Maynilad Water Services in November – stood out for being the first green equity IPO in Asia and the first company in the Philippines and Asean to achieve the green equity level under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s guidelines on Philippine green equity released in September 2025. This is also the largest water utility IPO globally since 2008.

The Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) were among the cornerstone investors in the Maynilad IPO, investing US$145 million and US$100 million, respectively. The proceeds will fund the company’s capital expenditure programme, which includes expanding water sources and increasing sewerage coverage through projects such as new water treatment facilities, additional reservoirs, and advanced wastewater systems.

In Thailand, MR. D.I.Y. Holding (Thailand) raised 5.63 billion baht (US$180.30 million) in October in the country’s largest IPO since February 2024. It was priced at the top of the marketing range of between 8.30 baht and 8.60 baht per share and was multiple times oversubscribed with strong demand from both international and domestic investors. The IFC also invested 455.7 million baht as an anchor investor in the IPO, whose proceeds were used to expand the company’s footprint, including opening at least 500 stores across the country between 2025 and 2027.

The debt capital markets remain vibrant as funding avenues, with Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand manifesting higher issuances of G3 bonds in 2025 compared with 2024. Only the Philippines failed to follow suit as it registered a lower volume of US$6.17 billion in 2025, compared with US$8.50 billion in the preceding year.

The total G3 bond volume from Singapore surged 79.3% to US$19.75 billion in 2025, with the banking sector ramping up its contribution to the G3 bond transactions in the Asean region during the year. DBS printed two covered bond deals – one in June amounting to €1.25 billion (US$1.47 billion) and another in August worth US$2 billion, both of which have a tenor of three years. In March, it also raised US$1 billion in two equal tranches of US$500 million each in fixed-rate and floating-rate notes (FRNs).

UOB also raised US$2 billion in fixed and FRNs in March, taking advantage of the constructive markets and stable issuance window. The bank also tapped the euro covered bond market in late November with a five-year €850 million transaction – the longest tenor outstanding euro-denominated covered bond from Singapore. Then, in early December, UOB priced a £750 million (US$1.03 billion) covered bond as investors showed strong reverse interest on the back of the successful euro-denominated offering.

Indonesia diversifies

Infrastructure financing platform Clifford Capital was in the market three times in 2025, starting with a US$500 million fixed-rate public bond deal printed in January. In March, it priced its sixth public infrastructure asset-backed securities (IABS) transaction (Bayfront VI), amounting to US$527 million, which featured the first-ever placement of an unrated, unguaranteed mezzanine tranche. Then in November, it issued Bayfront VII amounting to US$705.5 million – its largest issuance so far and represented Clifford Capital’s inaugural issuance in the Reg S/144A format.

The Republic of Indonesia (RoI) demonstrated Asean’s reliance on the G3 bond market for funding, tapping the market five times in 2025, with issuances denominated in US dollar, euro and yen totaling over US$11 billion equivalent. Some of the fundraisings also demonstrated the sovereign’s commitment to sustainable finance with issuances of Sustainable Development Goals and blue bonds as well as green sukuk. In the meantime, as part of its ongoing strategy to diversify its funding sources for the state budget and expand its global investor base, the RoI tapped for the first time the Australian dollar bond market in October 2025 with an A$800 million (US$536.90 million) deal, which attracted strong demand. It also debuted in October in the offshore renminbi bond market with a 6 billion yuan (US$857.10 million) dual-tranche offering.

Other Indonesian issuers accessed the US dollar bond market in 2025, including Bank Mandiri, which raised US$800 million in March, and Pertamina Hulu Energi, which priced its inaugural offering of US$1 billion in May – the latter being the largest Indonesian corporate bond issuance since 2022.

Another sovereign front running the G3 bond transactions in the region is the Republic of the Philippines (RoP), which last year simultaneously tapped the US dollar and euro bond markets in January. It successfully priced a dual-tranche US dollar issuance totalling US$2.25 billion. This included a sustainability-themed bond amounting to US$1 billion for 25 years. The euro tranche amounting to €1 billion for seven years represented the RoP’s inaugural euro-denominated sustainability bond and marked its return to the euro bond markets since April 2021.

New issuers also accessed the US dollar bond market for the first time in 2025. One of Southeast Asia’s largest integrated property developers, SM Prime Holdings of the Philippines, debuted with a US$350 million deal, achieving the lowest coupon by a Philippine corporate issuer in the past three years. Also launching its inaugural trade was Malaysian lender Affin Bank, which priced in May a US$300 million issuance for five years – a significant milestone in the group’s capital diversification strategy. Maybank, meanwhile, printed in November its first public US dollar benchmark issuance in more than six years, amounting to US$500 million, which also marked the first FRN-only bank trade in Asia-Pacific.

PTT Global Capital arranged in September the first US dollar corporate subordinated offshore perpetual securities from Thailand since 2012 amounting to US$1.1 billion in dual tranches, along with a concurrent tender offer. The largest US dollar corporate hybrid from Southeast Asia in a decade, the capital securities issuance is part of the company’s broader deleverage plan and commitment towards maintaining its investment grade ratings.

Borrowers from the Asean countries also relied on the syndicated loan market for a large chunk of their funding requirements in 2025. According to LSEG, Singapore topped the league table with US$71.08 billion, though this amount represented a decline from the 2024 volume of US$88.46 billion. But other countries recorded increases during the same period, such as Indonesia with US$19.85 billion (up 48.3%), Malaysia US$11.88 billion (up 185.1%), Vietnam US$8 billion (up 35.87%), and the Philippines US$6.47 billion (up 115.8%). The most impressive uptick was witnessed in Laos, whose loan volume rose from only US$25 million in 2024 to US$4.41 billion in 2025 on the back of financing requirements for several infrastructure projects.

The appetite for infrastructure assets, such renewable energy, airport and telecoms, also underpinned a number of merger and acquisition deals in the Asean region in 2025, such as those in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

For the complete list of the best banks and advisers in Southeast Asia, please click here.

For the complete list of the best deals in Southeast Asia, please click here.

For more information about the awards gala scheduled for March 31, 2026, please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.