A massive power outage Wednesday in Southern Vietnam brought rolling blackouts that lasted for hours to Ho Chi Minh City, the entire southeastern region of Vietnam and large sections of Phnom Penh.
Vietnam’s state-owned Southern Power Corporation said Wednesday that the problem occurred around 2 p.m. following the breakdown of a 500-kilovolt transmission line that also supplies Cambodia with much-needed electricity. …
“We have only about 30 percent of our normal supply of electricity to distribute to important areas of the city, but we are trying to fix the problem,” the [Eletricite du Cambodge] official said yesterday afternoon, adding that Vietnam provides Cambodia with about 40 percent of its national electricity supply.
Keo Sovannarith, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, confirmed the city’s water supply had been hit by the outage.
“When the water supply factory looses electricity from the EdC, the machine-which uses electricity to work-can’t pump water to the pipes,” he said. …
The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has seen slow progress in its first year of operations because there has been only one listed firm and public knowledge about the stock market remains low, officials said Thursday.
The CSX was officially launched trading on April 18 last year with only one listed enterprise, the state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA).
“Because there is only one product in the stock market now, so the trading action is limited,” Ming Bankosal, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, which is the CSX’s regulator, told Xinhua over telephone. “I believe that the situation will be improving from this year as three or four enterprises are planned to list on the CSX this year.”
He said at the launching of the CSX, there were only 3,600 investors, but it was now up to 5,000 investors. …
The PPWSA sold 13 million shares in its first IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) in last April with a share going for 6,300 riel (1.57 U.S. dollars).
In May, the highest-priced stock was about 2.55 U.S. dollars a share, and then, it had gradually lowered to 1.55 U.S. dollars. …
Holders of shares in the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) have criticised the level of dividend payment that they will receive from the company.
PPWSA, which is the only company listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), was to pay its first dividend to 1,500 shareholders as of the close of business yesterday.
PPWSA will distribute a total dividend of 2.4 billion riel ($600,350), or 27.7 riel per share, to investors. However many investors said they are not happy with the amount. …
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. …
On March 20, the provincial water authority distributed letters to more than 5,000 customers in the province asking them to either use their own water sources or reduce the consumption of water because Prek Tup Lake- the 15-hectare reservoir that stores up to a half-million cubic meters of water during the rainy season- had dried up.
With no water coming from Prek Tup Lake, Anco Water Supply Co.Ltd., which has an exclusive contract to provide water to Sihanoukville, opened pipelines connecting Sihanoukville with Kbal Chhay, a waterfall 16km outside of the city, according to Prak Chanroeun, the director of the provincial department of industry mines and energy.
But because of insufficient pipelines and frequent power outages in the area due to the nationwide shortage of electricity, Anco has only been able to pump about 5,000 cubic meters of water into the city each day, about half of the 10,000 cubic meters demanded by customers, according to Mr. Chanroeun. …
Ngy Suy, the manger of Anco Water Supply also said… that the high price of diesel fuel used to power the generator was making it difficult for Anco to provide water at 1,000 reil, or about $0.25, per cubic meter, to the provincial water supply. …
Anco, which is owned by local tycoon Kok An, met with provincial officials yesterday and agreed to build two additional 200-cm wide water pipe networks between Kbal Chhay and Shianoukville in order to ensure that residents are able to access water all year round.
But for residents and business owners in Sihanoukville without their own well, a more pressing concern is where they will find water now. …
As in Sihanoukville, residents in Phnom Penh have been experiencing regular power outages, mostly due to the lack of water running through the country’s dams. …
The Government’s increasing pressure on investors and business owners, particularly in the tourism sector, to provide what in most countries would be considered public services and utilities is an issue that must be addressed, said Ho Vandy, co-chair of the Government-Private Sector Working Group on Tourism. …
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 million capital.
[Tram Minh Trung, director-general of Sacombank Securities Cambodia Public Ltd. Co.,] said the company had informed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SEEC) that it was handing back its licence as a securities registrar, transfer agent and paying agent. …
The CSX still only offers the stocks of one company, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, which listed in the bourse’s first and only initial public offering in April 2012. …
The French Development Agency yesterday agreed to grant Cambodia a total of $47.7 million, $8.7 million of which is a loan.
The sum is to support the Kingdom’s irrigation infrastructure investment, to improve the country’s access to drinkable water and to fund the fight against emerging diseases in the region. …
The inclusion of 20 communes to the central Phnom Penh water supply in the past year has resulted in a dramatic increase in demand and subsequent shortages, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority officials said yesterday. …
“Water demand in Phnom Penh is growing fast day to-day, especially following the commune’s residents [formerly in] Kandal who were moved to Phnom Penh,” Samreth
Sovithiea, a deputy director at the authority, said. …
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) yesterday announced plans to pay its first dividend to shareholders. …
Dividends from the stock will be given to investors next month in cash after the financial performance of the company is audited by an international firm.
Up until now, the company released neither the price of dividend per share nor the amount of revenue shareholders will get, as PPWSA is waiting for the audit be completed. …
The listed Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) earned total revenues of 36.9 million U.S. dollars in 2012, up 25 percent year-on-year, according to the firm’s unaudited financial statement on Wednesday.
The report said that the firm’s net income after tax was 8.56 million U.S. dollars last year, a 39 percent rise from 6.16 million U.S. dollars in a year earlier. …
More than 200 employees of Telecom Cambodia demonstrated yesterday morning, demanding the company’s general director step down and that the Anti-Corruption Unit investigate the company. …
The strikers claimed general director Lao Saroeun had been involved in large-scale embezzlement, other forms of corruption and disrespect of workers throughout his five-year tenure and such misdoings had delayed the company’s listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange.
“According to the report of 2011 incomes, Lao Sareoun and his accountant and financial director took $2 million of Telecommunication Cambodia’s income,” the workers claim in a public statement.
The statement goes on to allege that in order to cover up the $2 million shortfall, Sareoun, his accountant and his financial director counterfeited a report to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. …
Telecommunication Cambodia is one of two state-owned enterprises the government plans to list on the securities exchange this year.
The Taiwanese-owned garment company Grand Twins International (Cambodia) Plc says it intends to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) next month, in a boost for the Kingdom’s nascent stock market.
Phnom Penh Securities (PPS), an underwriter for Grand Twins International (GTI), said yesterday the company would offer 12 million shares at $0.25 a share. …
The government has said it plans to list two other state-owned enterprises, Telecom Cambodia and the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, some time this year. Officials of both enterprises did not confirm that time frame yesterday.
PPS said that as of June last year, GTI’s total assets and total capital were about $31.6 million and $27.7 million, respectively. GTI is incorporated as a 100 per cent Taiwanese company. …
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s price was unchanged at 6,200 riel yesterday, with 854 shares changing hands, according to data of the CSX.
GTI’s sales increased about 17 per cent, from $21.86 million to $25.56 million, between mid-2011 and mid-2012. …
Cambodia’s Securities Exchange (CSX) on Monday broke ground for the construction of a 3-storey building in the heart of Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. …
“The construction of the building reflects the government’s firm stance in developing the stock market and the building will build more confidence among both local and foreign investors in the CSX,” Cambodian deputy Prime Minister and finance minister Keat Chhon said at the groundbreaking ceremony. …
The building will cost 4 million U.S. dollars and the construction will be completed in early 2014, he said.
It is located near the capital’s historical site Wat Phnom in Duan Penh district. …
The CSX was initiated by the Korean Exchange in 2007. It is a joint venture between the government of Cambodia holding 55 percent of the stakes and the Korean Exchange owning the remaining 45 percent. …
Stock trading at the Cambodia Securities Exchange of the only publicly listed company, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, slightly fluctuated in terms of both trading volume and price in the last five trading days from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5.
On Nov. 26, one day before the official Water Festival break, the share’s price remained at KHR 6,200 (US$ 1.55), and kept the same level after the festival. But on Dec. 3, after the weekend, the price increased to KHR 6,300 (US$1.58) before it dropped to KHR 6,150 (US$1.54). On the last day, Dec. 5, price increased slightly to KHR 6,200, according to data available on the website of the Cambodia Securities Exchange. …
Delegates from eight French-owned companies in the water management sector will meet with government officials and officials from the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority today to explore business opportunities in Cambodia, according to a French Embassy statement yesterday. As a part of a two-day visit, representatives from the companies, which include water systems engineering firm Altereo, consulting firm De Dietrich Process Systems, and water service provider Hemera, will discuss integrating their systems here. They will also consider how to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of providing 80 percent of Cambodia’s population with clean water by 2015. …
Trading on the Cambodian Securities Exchange remained low yesterday, which also marked six months of operation for the bourse. An official said this is due to a lack of public awareness and listed companies.
Ming Bankosal, General Director of the CSX, said that as listed companies increase so will public interest and trading. …
Douglas Clayton, CEO of Leopard Capital, wrote via email that PPWSA seemed to have found its valuation, which happens to be back at the IPO price.
Until there is an earnings growth catalyst investors cannot expect the price to re-rate higher. Water utility stocks tend to have low price volatility, he said. …
Ming Bankosal said that according to traders, most of them bought and then kept their shares because they have confidence in PPWSA, which as a state-run company in the CSX will never lose value or go bankrupt. …
Every day, thousands of people drive past a big electronic billboard showing market data from the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), the first securities market in the Kingdom’s history. While waiting for the traffic light, those Cambodians who are interested can get a glimpse of the activity on the new bourse and whether the stock price of its one listed company, the state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), is up or down.
Right now, interest in PPWSA shares seems to be decreasing daily and the sup- ply is outstripping demand, which has led to the price falling below the IPO level. …
In the near future, when activity picks up, securities firms will pro- vide software for online trading that should streamline the process further. Phnom Penh Securities is building and testing such software and will launch it in the not-too-distant future , Sok Chamroeun said.
If all goes to plan and more companies list and trading is made easier, the CSX should emerge from the doldrums of the last several months and volumes will rise again. This, in turn, could move new investors like Phan Chankun and others who have been holding onto their stocks to begin placing orders in the young market again. .. .
The price of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority stock over the Sept. 27- Oct. 3 period was only KHR 6,200 (US$1.54), under the IPO price of KHR 6,300 (US$1.56), for nearly the whole week.
But on Oct. 3, the price rose to the IPO price again, while trading volumes varied widely from around 1,400 to 37,400 shares, according to data from the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) website. …
The main players of the week were Golden Fortune Securities, Acleda Securities and Tong Yang Securities.
More than two months after the firm announced it would list on the Cambodian Securities Exchange, Bonna Realty has selected Tong Yang Securities to underwrite its initial public offering (IPO), an official said yesterday.
Sung Bonna, the CEO of the Phnom Penh-based realty firm, said that the two sides would finalize an agreement before the end of the week as the firm looks to list on the stock exchange in one to two years time. ..
Tong Yang has thus far prepared the IPO for the bourse’s lone listing, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and is also currently in the final stages of preparing the IPO for another state-owned enterprise, Telecom Cambodia, which is set to launch in early 2013.
The price of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority stock over the Sept 12-19 period remained very stable, falling early on from KHR 6,350 (US $1.57) to KHR 6,300 (US $1.56) where it stayed.
Trading volumes over the five days varied from around 4200 to 13,600 shares, according to data from the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) website. …
After the weekend the trading volume rose slightly to 5,065, creating KHR 31.9 million (US $7,906). On the next trading day, the volume doubled to 11,329 shares, which generated KHR 71.3 million (US $17,651). The executed volume continued rising on Sept. 19 to 12,750 shares, producing KHR 80.3 million (US $19,867).
The main players of the week were Golden Fortune Securities, Acleda Securities, Tong Yang Securities and Cana Securities.
