Cambodia Bourse Sees End to IPO Drought
November 12th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Banking & Finance, Economics, Industry, Stock Exchange
Cambodia’s stock market is set for a revival early next year when initial public offerings are expected by at least four local companies, ending a drought for a bourse that has hosted just one listing since its trading debut in April.
State-owned Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port are likely to list by June, while two private garment manufacturers are preparing for first-quarter IPOs, Cambodia Securities Exchange Chief Executive Hong Sok Hour said in an interview Monday. …
CHUN HAN WONG
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578114560882515832.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
September 6th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Banking & Finance, Disputed Waters, Foreign Investment, International Relations, Technical Assistance
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports this week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants—and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast Asia—Cambodian officials want to be sure no one suspects the little country is falling too much under China’s sway.
Cheam Yeap, chairman of the Commission on Economy, Finance, Banking and Audit at the Cambodian National Assembly, said China’s loans have nothing to do with Cambodia’s recent support for China in disputes involving the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by China and several Southeast Asian states. That backing includes a now-famous episode in July when members of the Association of Southeast Asian nations failed to reach a consensus on how to resolve conflicts in the sea at their latest summit in Phnom Penh, failing even to issue their customary joint communiqué at the end…
Patrick Barta
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/09/06/cambodia-says-no-strings-attached-in-recent-chinese-aid/
Stevia Nutra Corporation Set to Launch Stevia Propagation Centre in Cambodia
June 8th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Exports, Foreign Investment, Imports, Industry, International Relations
Stevia Nutra Corporation — (The Company), an Agro-Management company focused on stevia agronomics is pleased to announce that it has successfully acquired 50 acres of prime agricultural land in Cambodia for its new innovative Stevia Propagation Centre (SPC).
The property is located just outside the town of Kampong Speu, in close proximity to the country’s capital city and commercial hub of Phnom Penh, and the coastal port of Sihanoukville. This advantageous location is expected to provide the Company with lucrative import and export opportunities…
Stevia Nutra Corporation
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stevia-nutra-corporation-set-to-launch-stevia-propagation-centre-in-cambodia-2012-06-08
Asia Weakness Heightens Fears of Contagion
June 1st, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Economics, International Relations
Manufacturing activity in China and across a wide swath of Asia slowed in May, heightening fears that the turmoil in Western economies is dragging down one of the few remaining engines of global growth.
Two purchasing managers indexes for China fell in May, briefly rattling investors Friday and stoking talk Beijing may have to respond aggressively to support growth. Indonesia posted its first trade deficit in nearly two years, and South Korea’s exports, considered a bellwether for Asia, unexpectedly fell for a third straight month.
“The crisis in Europe is one reason; the other one is the China slowdown. But I think less appreciated is that the height of uncertainty about the outlook has caused Asian firms and multinationals in Asia to pause in their investments”… [said Rob Subbaraman, chief Asia economist at Nomura Securities.] …
Michael Arnold and Tom Orlik
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303640104577439103464926734.html
Cambodia Finally Starts Stock Trading
April 18th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Stock Exchange
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. …
Isabella Steger
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/04/18/cambodia-finally-starts-stock-trading/
Cambodia Joins Stocks Party
April 18th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Economics, Stock Exchange
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. …
James Hookway and Eric Bellman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304331204577351551608365784.html
Cambodia Takes Aim at the Dominant Dollar
April 12th, 2012, Wall Street Journal
PHNOM PENH—In its home country, the Cambodian riel has long played second fiddle to the U.S. dollar—but a new stock exchange and government de-dollarization policies could bolster it in coming years, policy makers and experts say.
Dollars change hands with greater frequency than riel in the capital city, though both are universally accepted. Some taxi drivers say they prefer the U.S. currency simply because it means handling fewer bills; there are 4,000 riel to the dollar.
A 2011 report from the International Monetary Fund estimated that dollars make up about 80% of Cambodia’s money supply, up from less than 70% a decade ago.
That worries the National Bank of Cambodia because it renders monetary policy ineffective as a brake or cushion for the economy. …
Martin Vaughan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577336784184598356.html
Cambodia Bets Casinos Can Boost Tourism
April 4th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Infrastructure, Social Concerns, Tourism
Cambodian developers are betting that casinos can make the tiny Southeast Asian country a bigger draw for high-spending tourists.
The nation of 15 million people has more than 25 casinos, but most are small affairs in rough-and-tumble border towns that cater to hard-core Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese gamblers. Now, as the country continues to stabilize after political chaos in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, developers are pushing ahead with more-ambitious resorts hoping to attract a broader clientele. But some skeptics say the odds of success are long.
Government officials have blessed the idea of adding new casinos, despite protests from advocacy groups that worry that the projects will generate crime and push some residents off their land. The government says casinos generated about $20 million in tax revenue last year, up 25% from the year before. That revenue is helping Cambodia develop in such areas as education and health, said Phay Siphan, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Council of Ministers. The casinos also will encourage tourism, he said. …
Patrick Barta
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304750404577317094266574870.html
Sea Clashes Loom Over Southeast Asia Summit
March 29th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, International Relations
Tiny Cambodia is emerging as a key pawn in the diplomatic struggle over one of the world’s busiest stretches of water: the potentially energy-rich South China Sea.
The country of 15 million people is this year hosting a series of regional summits in which China’s claims to the waters could loom large. Its sea tussles with countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines has raised security fears in an already jittery region. The U.S. has further angered China by saying it wants to keep the South China Sea, which carries around half the world’s total trade, free and open to navigation.
Ahead of a summit by leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations next week. China’s President Hu Jintao is embarking on his own four-day state visit to Cambodia Friday in what some analysts interpret as a not-so-subtle reminder of where the host nation’s sympathies should lie, and a ploy to encourage Cambodia to play down the South China Sea controversy wherever possible.
Cambodia is the latest Asian country to have its ties to China come under closer scrutiny. China for years has been the biggest provider of foreign aid and investment in Cambodia. Chinese investors have transformed Phnom Penh’s skyline with ever-taller buildings and Chinese tourists flock to the country’s burgeoning casinos. …
James Hookway
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577308972320988892.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Integration of Southeast Asian Stock Exchanges Hits Snag
March 11th, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, International Relations, Stock Exchange
Just months before stock exchanges in Southeast Asia plan to link up their trading, key players remain divided, with one top bourse official saying the region may be going through a “reality check” on the many hurdles facing further economic integration.
The plan for cross-border trading among the exchanges in the region is part of a grander scheme for some form of economic community within the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 2015. But the initiative has already faced some setbacks, with several exchanges’ decisions to participate in the trading link pending. ….
Through the so-called “Asean Trading Link,” investors will be able to buy and sell shares in any of the participating markets while settling the transactions in their home market. The seven exchanges—including two in Vietnam —are estimated to have a combined market capitalization of roughly $2 trillion, bringing them closer to stock markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai. …
Kana Ingaki
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203961204577270760343324718.html
Cambodia’s Developers Again Aim at Stars
February 21st, 2012, Wall Street Journal, Banking & Finance, Foreign Investment, Stock Exchange
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.
Patrick Barta
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577207352952177994.html?mod=googlenews_wsj