Garment IPO may arrive in time for polls

Garment IPO may arrive in time for polls

After the listing of Taiwanese-owned garment company Grand Twins International (Cambodia) Plc on the Kingdom’s stock exchange was delayed indefinitely, its underwriter said yesterday that the firm hopes to list before the national elections in late July.

According to the underwriter, Phnom Penh Securities (PPS) Plc, negotiations between the company and the Securities Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) over the initial public offering price are finished by now and “we hope [they can list] before the election…We still have a lot to do. We’ll try our best.”

In February, the Post reported that Grand Twins International said it intends to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) in March. PPS said then that the company would offer 12 million shares at $0.25 a share.

PPS said Grand Twins had “negotiated with the SECC about the IPO price, the listing price”, which was “higher than the SECC agreed”, adding that they have now agreed on a price, but declined revealing the amount.

According to an active market participant of the CSX, the existing status regarding Grand Twins International “is more of an administrative and compliance matter that the underwriter is trying to complete for documentation”.

“The timeline to list very much depends on the completion of the required documentation, if the documents are ready and can be approved by SECC before election, it will be listed before election, otherwise the listing will need to be postponed to after election,” the person familiar with the matter said.

Ming Ban Kosal, director-general of the SECC did not reply to an email yesterday.

The Post reported in March that state-owned fixed-line company Telecom Cambodia’s plan to join the CSX had been postponed indefinitely due to poor financial performance.

On Monday, Lou Kim Chhun, director general of Sihanoukville deep sea port, told the Post that the company is still working with an underwriter, SBI Phnom Penh Securities, on its IPO.

“We made a lot of progress on the project. Everything is going smoothly now,” he said, without offering a timeframe . “We have not set the exact time yet. But we will try our best to get it as fast as we can.”

phnom penh post