[PHNOM PENH POST]
Cambodia Securities Exchange has granted permission to Phnom Penh Water
Supply to push forward with its initial public offering, according to a
statement from the CSX.
While final approval is needed from the
Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia before PPWS is eligible
to trade on the exchange, people close to the potential deal said the
IPO could happen as early as this quarter.
“I think it’s possible
in mid to early in the first quarter because the company continues to
show progress,” ACLEDA Securities director Svay Hay said.
ACLEDA Securities, a division of ACLEDA Bank, is one of the brokers responsible for selling PPWS stock for the IPO.
“This
means that PPWS will be ready and trade first. That’s very important to
prove that we will be definitely trading early this year as [the
government] promised,” he said.
Trading on the exchange had been
expected to begin in November, following its official launch in July.
However, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon in November told
reporters that an incomplete regulatory regime and the public’s lack of
confidence in the exchange had forced further delays. He said at the
time that stocks would “probably start trading from January”.
PPWS,
one of three state-owned enterprises expected to list on the CSX, along
with Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, was approved
for an initial public offering during a CSX board meeting on December
14, according to a statement from the exchange issued last week.
“PPWS
is the first state-owned company to receive approval in principle on
its listing eligibility by the CSX as a result of the many positive
points in company’s business plan,” the CSX said in the statement.
Ros
Kimleang, director of PPWS’s accounting and financial department,
confirmed the company had been given the go-ahead, but declined to offer
a time frame for an eventual stock offering.
“Now we are
preparing for it, but we cannot say when we will be ready,” he said,
adding that that the company expected to list “some time in the first
quarter”.
PPWS will need final approval for its public offering from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia.
SECC
director-general Ming Bankosal, reached by phone over the weekend, said
the regulatory body was still waiting for PPWS’s prospectus and other
filings, and there was no deadline for that approval.
“It depends
on the quality of the documents,” he said, noting that PPWS would list
sooner if the company’s filings were in order.
Even after
obtaining SECC permission, PPWS will need to submit a number of other
disclosures to the Cambodia Securities Exchange prior to an IPO,
including a list of the offering’s subscribers and the amount of stock
they received.
ACLEDA Securities’ Svay Hay said he expected the offering in the first quarter.
Telecom Cambodia director-general Lao Saroeun said yesterday his firm had yet to apply for listing eligibility with the CSX.
“We are nearly 100 per cent finished,” he said. “We have a few more things to do.”
Jeremy
Ha, director at SBI Phnom Penh Securities, which is underwriting the
IPO of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said his firm was “working hard to
satisfy the requirements to list on the market”, and that he hoped to
see an offering in the first quarter.
“We will try to list Sihanoukville Port at the same time as PPWS, or a little bit behind,” Ha said.
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