ACLEDA Bank IPO due this month
People walk into the Acleda Bank head office in Phnom Penh, 10 January 2008. Standard and Poor's assigned its first credit rating to a Cambodian bank on 10 January, but said the sector overall remained "fragmented," despite a surging economy. Standard and Poor's placed the country's banking sector in its tenth and lowest group based on risk assessment, alongside Bolivia, Jamaica, Ukraine, and Venezuela. But it also gave Cambodia's leading microcredit provider Acleda Bank a B+/B credit rating, saying the institution's outlook was "stable." AFP PHOTO/ TANG CHHIN SOTHY (Photo by TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP)
The initial public offering (IPO) of ACLEDA Bank will be the sixth equity firm to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) and will do so by the end of this month after the bank announced the completion of its subscription process. The subscription result was approved by the SECC on April 30
At present, the bank has been proceeding with the investors’ shares to the CSX’s system and this process will take around three weeks. The bank expects that it will list on the securities exchange in the fourth week of May. However, the exact date will be publicly disclosed later.
ACLEDA Bank Plc, the largest commercial bank in Cambodia, set its IPO price of $4.05 (16,200 riels) per share for investors after the book-building process was completed on March 14.
Dr. In Channy, president and group managing director of ACLEDA, said that although the impact of COVID-19 is being felt throughout the globe, 2,497 investors have participated in the subscription, spending their valuable time and hard-earned money to invest in the bank
This active participation is down to the public trust in the bank’s strong performance and financial position as well as its leading position in the Cambodian banking sector, Channy added.
“We highly appreciate the support and would like to thank all our customers and investors who have invested in the ACLEDA Bank’s monumental IPO,” he added.
Dr. Channy continued that “ACLEDA will formally list its shares on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (“CSX”) in May 2020. “Once the listing is complete, ACLEDA will become the first commercial bank to be publically traded in Cambodia.”
Han Kyung Tae, Managing Director of Yuanta Securities (Cambodia) Plc, the lead manager of this significant project, said that despite being in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subscription result for ACLEDA Bank’s IPO was quite encouraging.
He added that ACLEDA Bank and its management team showed a great commitment to push through with the listing as planned and this seems to be a prudent choice.
Yuanta, as the lead manager of this signficant project, will continue to do our best to not only help the Issuer but also many investors that have participated in the IPO by focusing on enhancing liquidity for the Bank’s shares in the secondary market, Mr. Han said.
“We believe that assisting the issuer with follow-on offerings and arranging block trades in the future will increased liquidity and attract more foreign investors to not only ACLEDA shares but also the entire Cambodian capital market,” Tae added.
Sou Socheat, director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECCA), told Khmer Times that ACLEDA needs to consult with the CSX on the listing date and inform the SECC later. He added that despite challenges, the capital market will still keep moving forward.
Hong Sok Hour, CEO of CSX, said that the CSX now has 10 listed companies, five equity firms and five corporate bond firms with a total value collected from the capital market of $191 million.
He said that the amount of market capitalisation was $442 million in 2018, increasing to $701 million in 2019, while the trading volume increased from $26,000 daily in 2018 to $150,000 daily in 2019.
Credited: Khmer Times
