The Cambodia Securities Exchange may launch as soon as March or April, according to an official at the Korea Exchange, the Kingdom’s partner in launching its stock market.

Heng Chivoan/ Phnom Penh Post

A man viewed through the window of the trading room at the Cambodia Securities Exchange earlier this month.

Final preparations for the CSX’s  initial public offerings should be complete at that time, Pat Gil-soo, senior vice-president for global business development, said yesterday.

“I hope to visit [Phnom Penh] again in late March or early April for the opening ceremony,” he said.

But Pat Gil-soo said the decision was ultimately up to the Cambodian government, so he could not offer an exact launch date.

Korea Exchange and the Ministry of Economy and Finance formed a joint venture for the establishment of the CSX in 2006, with Cambodia holding 55 per cent and KRX holding 45 per cent.

The exchange was twice delayed prior to its opening last July, and trading has yet to begin.

Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon said last week the CSX was technically ready for trading, as all securities firms and cash settlement agents had been connected to the exchange’s computer systems.

Keat Chhon told an investor forum last November he expected trading to begin early this year.

Insiders last month assumed trading was imminent after Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, one of three state-owned enterprises slated to begin trading on the exchange, was granted permission to list by CSX officials.

Tong Yang Securities managing director Han Kyung-tae, whose firm is an underwriter for Phnom Penh Water Supply, predicted a first-quarter start. “We are close to the end of preparations,” he said yesterday.

CSX chief executive Hong Sok Hour could not be reached for comment yesterday.