SIAS To Study feasibility Of Grading Public Listed Companies

Date: February 28, 2005

In view of the recent state of corporate debacles, retail investors have been upset and confused. They have asked SIAS to help them to sieve the bad investment prospects from the good ones.

Often a company with good fundamentals appears to be running into difficulties due to failure in human integrity, poor accounting practices or lack of effective internal risk management system. I am proposing to appoint a steering committee to study the feasibility of grading companies according to their risk management, corporate practices, transparency levels, accounting practices and criminal records of corporate personalities. This would enable retail investors with their informed decision on investments. We will seek the assistance of Rapid Rating, an international credit rating agency, industry leaders such as brokers, fund managers and senior financial journalists to assist SIAS members to come up with a grading system.

Mr David Gerald J.
President & CEO
Securities Investors Association (Singapore)