Tong Yang Securities Wins Contract to List State Enterprises

South Korea’s Tong Yang Securities signed an agreement with the government yesterday to prepare the public offerings for three state-owned companies planning to list on Cambodia’s stock exchange next year, company officials announced yesterday at a press conference.

Earlier this year the Ministry of Finance put forward Telecom Cambodia, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port as firms to list on the Cambodian bourse.

“This morning we signed the ‘Financial Advisory Agreement’ with the Ministry of Finance for the three state-owned enterprises,” said Hobart Lee Epstein, deputy CEO of Tong Yang Securities, while speaking at a news conference.

Tong Yang Securities was awarded an underwriting license by the ministry last week alongside six other companies that are now authorized to prepare initial public offerings.

The number of companies awarded licenses has drawn experts to question whether or not there will be enough business to go around once the bourse is launched.

Officials at Tong Yang Securities yesterday said there was still some organizing to do before the three state-owned enterprises become fully compliant with regulations from the Securities Exchange Commission of Cambodia in areas such as accounting and transparency. They declined to reveal which company was most advanced in the process.

“The fact that it’s something of a new concept to both the investors as well as the companies that are operating in the country, we need to have a lot of education,” Mr Epstein said. “We also need to look at the accounting standards and how transparent that they can portray the financial statements.”

He added that a specific timetable for issuing the public offerings to the market had not yet been set. Though he remained confident that it could be done ahead of the government’s July launch date for the stock market.

Han Kyung-tae, director of Tang Yong Securities, said that once the public offerings for the state-owned enterprises had been prepared, efforts to attract clients from the private sector would commence.

 

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