FRASER CORPORATE PROFILE
Fraser Securities was established in 1873 when it was known as Fraser & Co, a household name then and the oldest financial firm in the Far East. It was founded by a joyful Scots entrepreneur, Mr John Fraser, who set up businesses in Singapore and Malaya, ranging from light commercial trades to heavy industrial production. Nicknamed "The Jolly Octopus", he was once the President of the prestigious Tanglin Club and his business empire included sharebroking, printing and publishing, carbonated-drinks production and sawmill. Some of his other non-financial businesses continue to thrive till today.
THE EARLY FINANCIAL INDUSTRY
In the late nineteenth century when Singapore was under British colonial rule, the business of sharebroking was merely an accessory to British corporate enterprise in the plantation and extractive industries in Peninsular Malaysia. The sharebrokers provided supporting financial services and facilities for the purchase and sale of shares of those British rubber and tin corporations. Shares were bought and sold in the London market by these sharebroking firms through the intermediary of London brokers. Whenever they could, the sharebroking firms also conducted transactions locally, acting as brokers for sellers with ready scrips or those who represented that they had, and bringing together buy and sell orders which matched. This lucrative business saw many new sharebroker firms mushrooming throughout the years, especially during the 1910 rubber boom. However, many also went bust and were wiped out in 1912 following the decline of rubber demand.
UNOFFICIAL STOCK EXCHANGE
In those days, there was no stock exchange or an equivalent to regulate trading activities; brokers made the market. Trading during this period was dominated by one company, Fraser & Co., which laid undisputed claim to make the market for all the rest. At the end of each trading day, at about 4 p.m., the Fraser brokers would congregate to fix the closing prices of various securities done for the day by the individual brokers. The firm had its own fleet of rickshaws which, at the end of a day, were gracefully lined along Collyer Quay, in front of Maritime Building.
For decades, before the Malayan Stock Exchange was constituted in 1960, Fraser & Co. played the role of an unofficial stock exchange. Fraser was, in fact, the first broker in South East Asia to produce research reports. As early as the beginning of the century, its research department started compiling and publishing statistical data and information of all the listed companies in its annual "Facts & Figures" journal and monthly "Fraser's Circular". These publications, written in the first half of the twentieth century, are priceless items much sought after by collectors as far as Scotland.