A major Vietnamese bank is closing its brokerage and securities arm in Cambodia, an official said yesterday, amid the ongoing drought of listings on the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX). ...
Sacombank, which will continue to operate as a bank in Cambodia, set up the securities firm in January 2011 with $7... continue
Sellers have dominated the Cambodia Securities Exchange for the last seven days of trading, and the downward trend for the single stock, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, was expected to continue into next week, experts said.
PPWSA closed down 4.6 per cent yesterday at 7,250 riel (US$1.79), according to the CSX.
There were 26,171 shares worth $46,942 traded, a volume increase of 53 per cent over Wednesday’s trades.
An SBI Royal Securities market report yesterday called the market increasingly “gloomy”, and said the price could fall into next week…
… Industries such as tourism and garment production are booming. Mining is taking off and the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) is finally up and running after a 10-month delay with Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) its first listing.
“PPWS is considered one of the best managed state enterprises in Cambodia. Phnom Penh is one of the only cities in Asia where it is safe to drink water out of the tap,” said Doug Clayton, CEO of the frontier investment fund .
That reputation was hard earned in a country renowned for corruption (164th on Transparency International’s perceptions of corruption index last year).
What changed PPWS was the appointment of Ek Sonn Chan as director back in 1993. Given the mission to provide the city with clean, affordable drinking water, he began by building a performance-based corporate culture. Practices that allowed jobs for life, along with jobs for friends and relatives, were ditched. Staffing levels were cut by 80%. Those who remained were paid high salaries but told they would be dismissed if they failed to measure up.
Two factors contributed to the company’s success. First Sonn Chan obtained the implicit backing of Prime Minister Hun Sen who supported his plan to run PPWS as an autonomous body. Second, he tugged on the emotional heartstrings of donors who had begun entering the country as part of a UN bid to rebuild it. …
The Cambodia Securities Exchange has seen a sharp decrease in action this week, with trading volume yesterday falling to 3,453 shares, down nearly 100 per cent from Monday.
Despite the drop, which was accompanied by a strong shift from institutional to retail investors, experts have stressed the time and patience required for a fledgling market – one with a single stock traded – to find its feet.
The relatively high opening price for public utility Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority contributed to the declining volume of trades, insiders said.
PPWSA closed at 8,800 riel (US$2.18) yesterday, down 4.86 per cent, near to the exchange’s mandated 5-per-cent trading range for the stock.
More than 590,900 shares went unsold yesterday, with close to 1 million unexecuted the day before.
“At the original price, there were some big profits for some early investors,” Dao Duy Anh, deputy chief executive at Cambodia-Vietnam Securities, said yesterday.
“This is one of the first [investment opportunities] available to the Cambodian people, and there was a lot of excitement during the first days.”…
While the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s (PPWSA) share price continued to fall yesterday, a second state firm came a step closer to joining it on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange by announcing plans to register by the end of July.
At a ceremony marking the first day of trading in the PPWSA on the Cambodian Securities Exchange last week, Finance Minister Keat Chhon urged two other public firms – Telecom Cambodia and the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port – to get on with their own long-delayed plans to list…
Despite interest in participating in the stock market, confusion as to how and where to invest in the Cambodia Securities Exchange still persists among many Cambodians without close ties to or backgrounds in trading.
After the much-anticipated and long-delayed launch of CSX trading last week, Soun Sokret, an account and media supervisor at a local company, said he wanted to buy shares in Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
The problem was that he didn’t know where to get information about the CSX and said he considered going to the exchange floor on the 25-storey of Canadia Tower to inquire.
“My friends and I want to invest but we don’t know how. The CSX has lots of support from the government right now, so they will not let it fail. We think this is a chance to get a big return,” Soun Sokret said…
Share prices on the Cambodia Securities Exchange yesterday fell for the first time since trading began a week ago, as technical problems reportedly caused a 90 per cent drop in the amount of shares traded.
The daily increase and decrease in price is capped at 5 per cent, however the value and number of shares traded yesterday fell by about 90 per cent after the CSX’s second-biggest day of trading on Monday…
The price increase for Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares maxed out after an hour of trading yesterday morning, the second day of operations on the Cambodia Securities Exchange.
PPWSA closed up 4.84 per cent yesterday at 9,750 riel (US$2.44), climbing from 9,300 the day before, as an increasing number of retail investors bought into the company.
A total of 488,528 shares were traded.
Daily price increases or decreases are capped at 5 per cent, according to regulations.
Retail investors would be interested in short-term cash flow and would add to market activity as prices continue to climb, ACLEDA Securities president and managing director Svay Hay said yesterday in an email…
The Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) and Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on financial consultation services and trade co-operation that is hoped to expand banking and securities business in the country.
The MoU should bring the bank and the securities firm into close co-operation on financial advising in a market with an increasing demand for the services.
The bank has shown interest in a possible public listing, but no time frame was given…
But the move comes primarily as a response to the global financial crisis and the rating agency’s attempt to realign sovereign ratings with that of banks, an official at Moody’s said. …
Moody’s will review ACLEDA’s and Campu’s “bank financial strength rating”, both of which stand at a D, according to a statement issued late on Tuesday. ACLEDA’s “local currency long-term deposit and issuer rating”, now at a Ba2 rating, will also be up for review.
Banks rated D display modest intrinsic financial strength, potentially requiring some outside support at times, according to Moody’s. The rating agency views long-term obligations with a B grade as “subject to high credit risk”.
Given continued gross domestic product growth in the Kingdom, which the World Bank and Asian Development Bank projecting 6.5 per cent year-on-year growth in 2012, the potential downgrades were unexpected, Campu country head Phan Ying Tong said. “Sometimes we feel surprised. If [Moody’s] policy continues to change, then it will continue to affect our banks.” …
By the time Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon closed the first session of the Cambodian Securities Exchange yesterday morning, shares in Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, the Kingdom’s first domestically listed company, were just shy of soaring 50 per cent.
Institutional and retail investors traded 487,110 stocks worth $1.13 million.
The sharp increase was expected in the newly launched market.
With primary market bids 17 times higher than share supply, experts had predicted the stock would hit that mark after Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the exchange at the auspicious time of 9:09am from his office, a block west of the CSX.
The premier’s image was broadcast before a flock of Cambodian and Korean officials and businesspeople as he rang in the country’s first, and long-delayed, trading session.
“It’s not surprising to see the price climb so high. It’s the first listed shares in a developing country. But that’s not to say there’s no risk of overheating,” Yoo Jae-hoon, the standing commissioner of Korea’s Financial Services Commission, told the Post on the sidelines of the historic launch. …
The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority will launch its initial public offering (IPO) today on Cambodia’s bourse, and investors and securities officials said yesterday that they expected the company to make a strong start to trading…
…The Water Supply Authority is issuing 13 million shares, which accounts for a 15 percent share of the company. At %1.57 a share, the sale will generate more than $20 million
Han Kyung-tae, managing director of Tong Yang Securities, the firm underwriting the Water Authority’s IPO, said the share price would only be allowed to rise 50 percent above its initial price and no more than 10 percent below in order to prevent wild swings in the company’s value…
Investors, along with the next two companies expected to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, will watch carefully this morning the action on the country’s first initial public offering, nine months after the CSX officially opened.
After a book-building process that was 17 times over-subscribed, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares will sell at about a penny below the maximum bidding price originally set by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia.
PPWSA was valued at 6,300 riel, or US$1.57, a share in late March, and 514 investors bought 474,143 shares during book-building.
Nine months after Cambodia’s stock exchange was officially launched, the country’s first share started trading Wednesday, with the initial public offering of state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
PPWSA’s stock, priced at 6,300 riel (US$1.57), jumped 48% to 9,300 riel, according to the data from the exchange website. …
Cambodia tapped into the growing global interest in Southeast Asia with the start of trading in the sole stock at its gleaming new stock exchange on Wednesday.
Ordinary Cambodians and local businesses scrambled to buy into the country’s first initial public offering—of shares in a local water company. They weren’t disappointed when trading began at the deliberately auspicious hour of 9:09 a.m.
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares jumped in price to close at 9,300 riel, or $2.33, up 48% from their IPO price of $1.57 a share, which raised $20 million. The shares—15% of the firm—were 17 times subscribed.
Two more state-owned companies, Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, also plan to list shares on the new exchange. …
After a string of false starts, Cambodia’s stock market finally started trading on Wednesday, marking a significant step forward for an impoverished country blighted by corruption and scarred by decades of civil war. …
But on Wednesday, traders were reaping fast gains as the price of the sole listed firm, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), jumped 50 percent in the inaugural session.
“Today marks the birthday of Cambodia’s securities market, the day that we moved forward in a big important step in Cambodia’s financial sector and a historic day for Cambodia,” Finance Minister Keat Chhon said at the opening ceremony of the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX).
Keat Chhon said two more IPOs would take place later this year for state-owned Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port. Several private companies had also shown interest in listing, he said.
Brokers and would-be investors say CSX can overcome its one-company launch and help to boost transparency in state enterprises, spurring more growth in one of Asia’s smallest economies. …
Trading on Cambodia’s stock exchange has begun for the first time after a state-run company completed its initial public offering.
Some 13 million shares of the state-run Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority were offered at 6,300 riel ($1.57) per share.
The stock exchange was officially launched in July 2011, but trading only began Wednesday, a delay blamed in part on time needed to finalize investment laws. …
American Stock Exchange-listed Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc has announced it will build and operate a slot hall as an addition to an existing casino in Poipet city on Cambodia’s border with Thailand, according to a company statement. …
Investors should be cautious when pursuing the opportunities for growth present in Myanmar and Cambodia, Southeast Asia’s frontier markets, Templeton Asset Management Ltd. said. …
In Cambodia, state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority will have its initial public offering this month, making it the first to be traded on the stock exchange that opened last July without a single listed company. The Cambodian government has said it wants to spur economic development by selling off state- owned companies and encouraging private enterprises to expand with new funding.
Mobius, who oversees more than $50 billion in emerging- markets assets as executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, has said he’s watching the Cambodian railroad industry “with particular interest.” …
