Canadia, Bourse in Talks to House New Trading Floor

Canadia Bank is “close to finalizing” a deal with the government that will create a temporary home for the Cambodia Securities Exchange in Canadia Tower, an official at the bank said yesterday.

“We are in the process of negotiating and we are close to finalizing an agreement,” said Charles Vann, executive vice president, adding that he was not in a position to reveal any more details on the matter while negotiations were still in progress.

The stock exchange was originally planned to open inside the CamKo City property development to the north of Phnom Penh, which is being built by South Korea’s World City Co Ltd. But construction on the building has still not commenced and a start date has still not been announced.

Camko City project, which is to be home both a commercial and residential area, is due to completely finish in 2018. The government in July said the bourse would open in July 2011 at the earliest.

Huang Sochua, CEO of the Cambodian Securities Exchange, said that the CSX was still negotiating over how many floors with the 28-story tower the exchange would fill and that an agreement over the duration and cost of lease was also being discussed.

“We are in the final stage of discussion with Canadia Bank,” he said, adding that all details concerning the deal would be released “pretty soon.”

One person who is party to the talks but who asked not to be named due to sensitivity the matter said that an agreement could be reached as soon as the end of the month.

Susi, director of the firm that manages Canadia Tower, Mega Asset Management, and who goes by only one name, said that officials from the Korea Exchange, which has a 45 percent stake in the CSX, had visited Canadia Tower two weeks ago in order to map out designs for the floor of the stock exchange.

“We have not set a date to sign but basically we have verbally agreed already,” she said, adding that the exchange would likely operate on floors 25 and 26 of the tower.

Canadia Tower, which opened in November last year, has only four floors left vacant, including the two floors under negotiation with the CSX.

 

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