Bonna Realty Group will prepare to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, the company’s president said this week.

The real estate firm joins a small but growing group of private companies that say they are gearing up for initial public offerings on the new exchange.

“If we enter the stock market, we will have more opportunities to expand our capital on the one hand, and the company can reach the international markets on the other,” Sung Bonna, the group’s president, said.

No concrete time frame for listing was given, but the IPO could come in as early as one year, he said.

He did not disclose the company’s underwriter.

Sung Bonna also revealed that the company would build a skyscraper called Bonna Tower, but he declined to give a time frame or location for the project.

Last week, Phnom Penh Securities Firm Plc announced it was in the final stages of preparing disclosure documents for two foreign-owned garment factories, QMI and TY Fashion.

IPOs were expected by the end of the year.

The Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia has also expressed interest in listing.

Ming Bankosal, director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, said yesterday that the regulator was still waiting to see how many private companies were interested in listing.

Insiders earlier this year said about 10 private companies were mulling the listing option.

State-owned firms Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port were expected to list this year, but the government-induced IPOs may wait until next year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Don Weinland at [email protected]

Siv Meng at [email protected]