State-owned fixed-line company Telecom Cambodia's (TC) plan to join the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has been postponed indefinitely because of its poor financial performance, reports The Phnom Penh Post. The company will need to redesign its business plan to improve operations, said Sarak Khan, secretary of state at the Ministry... continue
The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) will begin taking bids from investors tomorrow in order to determine the price and number of shares it will issue during its long-awaited initial public offering on Cambodia’s stock exchange, the company’s general director said yesterday.
Investors will be able to make bids for the authority’s stock at 19 Acleda Bank branches in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kompong Cham and Preah Sihanouk provinces, according to PPWSA’s web site.
Depending on how much capital is raised during the bidding process, PPWSA will then announce when it will launch its IPO. Ek Sonn Chan, general director of PPWSA – one of the three state-owned companies that have announced plans to go public – said that the government planned to list just 15 per cent of the authority, while the government would retain ownership of the remaining 85 percent. ….
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia has approved in principle the listing of Phnom Penh Water Supply on the Cambodian Securities Exchange, according to the SECC’s website.
The announcement fell a step short from listing approval for PPWS, with the SECC requiring additional paperwork, including disclosure documents, before the state-owned company is allowed to trade on the stock exchange.
The CSX gave the company permission to list in early January, though the SECC has final approval…
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s low-rise capital city is reaching for the sky—again. Long known as one of the last major Asian cities without a skyline, Phnom Penh embarked on a high-rise building boom in the middle of the last decade, only to see it derailed by the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009…
Among the most prominent projects is Vattanac Capital Tower, a 38-story, $170 million office, retail and serviced-apartment development under construction downtown. Its developer, a local company called Vattanac Properties that has investments in industrial and golf properties, says the building should be finished later this year, and will include a host of amenities not commonly associated with Cambodia, including luxury boutiques, 29 elevators and five-star service for its serviced apartments.
…The developer is targeting tenants such as securities firms affiliated with Cambodia’s stock exchange, which officially launched last year even though there weren’t any companies ready to be listed. It is expected to expand this year.
The Cambodia Securities Exchange may launch as soon as March or April, according to an official at the Korea Exchange, the Kingdom’s partner in launching its stock market.
Final preparations for the CSX’s initial public offerings should be complete at that time, Pat Gil-soo, senior vice-president for global business development, said yesterday.
“I hope to visit [Phnom Penh] again in late March or early April for the opening ceremony,” he said…
Finance Minister Keat Chhon joined officials of the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) yesterday to conduct another day of mock trading of stocks ahead of the still-unknown launch of actual operations at the bourse, which opened in July but has yet to see a single stock bought or sold.
The minister was accompanied by Phnom Penh governor Kep Chuktema in the trading room of the CSX, located in the Canadia Tower, to conduct the pretend session of buying and selling of would-be stocks of three state-owned enterprises that are earmarked to go public some time this year…
Golden Fortune Securities, a Cambodian-Chinese joint venture and the Kingdom’s second securities dealer, officially opened its doors yesterday.
The company was the most recent of Cambodia’s 13 licensed dealers, brokers and underwriters to launch operations.
A date for company listings, or actual Cambodia Securities Exchange operations, was stilled undeclared for the exchange, which officially opened in July…
Small and medium-sized enterprises, which are expected to play a key role in the Kingdom’s emergent stock market, are far from ready to list, insiders say.
Most important, many SMEs lack the standardisations and controls required of publicly traded companies by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, including transparent accounting systems and financial reporting, according to insiders.
As a result, SMEs would be unable to trade on the Cambodia Securities Exchange until they made the necessary changes, Phnom Penh Securities chairman Kuy Vat said on Friday…
Just months before Sihanoukville Autonomous Port is supposed to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, officials said yesterday that the state-owned enterprise is still more expensive and slower at processing goods than other ports in the region.
An investor said that the problems confronting the port could have a negative impact on the success of its initial public offering…
The drafting of a law on e-commerce that would regulate electronic transfers in Cambodia has been postponed because the World Bank has suspended funds over the government’s handling of land evictions in Phnom Penh.
In September, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said that the government should aim to have the law adopted by the end of the year due to its necessity in regulating payments made on the recently launched stock market…
The National Bank of Cambodia yesterday granted Industrial and Commercial Bank of China a financial business licence, according to a report on aastocks, a Chinese stocks news service…
When the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) was officially launched on Jul. 11 there were no companies listed because of a drive to ensure that everything was above board.
“We want to assure full transparency,” says Huot Pum, the deputy director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia. “Financial information has to be audited and disclosed regularly.”
“Companies listed on the stock exchange have to live up to international standards,” Pum explained to IPS during an interview in his Phnom Penh office. “The stock exchange is a good way of ensuring sound corporate governance. It could help set the tone for a better corporate culture.”
Trading is expected to begin later this year once the three state-owned firms that have announced plans to list on the CSX have met “international auditing standards.” The companies are Telecom Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and Sihanoukville Autonomous Ports.
Using the CSX to nudge the country’s small economic and financial sector go down the road to accountability cannot help resolve problems of poor governance, cautions the World Bank. “Stock markets are not a panacea for poor governance environments,” says Mathew Verghis, lead economist for Southeast Asia at the Bank’s regional office in Bangkok
