The Cambodia Securities Exchange launched its Growth Board in late 2015 as a secondary platform to lift some of the barriers for listing and cater more to companies with less access to capital or financial resources. Hong Menea
Real estate developer JS Land Plc has gotten the nod from the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) to list on its Growth Board, and is poised to become the second small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to list on the bourse’s secondary board after DBD Engineering Plc, pending final approval from the securities regulator.
The CSX on July 22 granted approval in principle of JS Land’s equity securities listing eligibility review application for trading on the Growth Board, the bourse said in a press release on August 3.
“In order to be officially listed and have its securities traded on the CSX, JS land Plc shall get an approval for the public offering from the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia [SERC] and meet further listing requirements of the CSX.
“JS Land Plc is a potential company with main business in condominium development project[s] and the company is currently in the process of building a second project located in [the district of] Sen Sok which is a potential and developing area in Phnom Penh,” the CSX said.
CSX Market Operations Department director Kim Sophanita told The Post on August 4 that the Growth Board’s inaugural listing is the fruit of sustained efforts and a wide variety of programmes and initiatives on part of the bourse to raise awareness among SME owners of the benefits of registering on the secondary board.
The Growth Board was launched in late 2015 as a secondary platform to lift some of the barriers for listing and cater more to companies with less access to capital or financial resources. But it had failed to attract a single issuer over the years, even as the Main Board witnessed increasing growth.
Sophanita said: “JS Land is one of potential local SMEs … looking for growth and expansion. We are delighted that it passed the listing eligibility review of the exchange.
“We are looking forward to welcoming JS Land as the second [listed] stock on the Growth Board after it successfully undergoes the rest of [the] issuing process and receives official approval from [the] SERC,” she said, declining to provide further comment until the regulator gives the final green light.
“Actually they could have [begun the process] sooner, but as you know, it takes months to years to prepare the company to be qualified for listing. And if [weren’t] for the pandemic, there would have been more listings than [there are] now.
“The market will keep growing, as more SMEs are looking for alternative funding [sources beyond bank loans], capital restructuring and strategic financing for rapid growth,” Sophanita added.
JS Land was founded by a quintet of entrepreneurs from Cambodia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and incorporated on December 12, 2014 as a private limited company under the Kingdom’s Law on Commercial Enterprises.
It kicked off its first project GR1 in 2015, an affordable condominium development targeting young Cambodians. The project was successfully completed and handed over to customers at the beginning of 2019.
Last year, the company embarked on its second project GR2, which broke ground in November and is expected to be completed and handed over by end-2023.
Sophanita said: “Regardless of the pandemic, and partial lockdown and curfew in some areas across the country, stock market activity still keeps going forward.
“July’s average trading value was up to $370,000 per day and we [saw] 565 new trading account[s] opening, [a] 22 per cent increase compared to June.”
On June 22, the SERC approved DBD Engineering for public listing on the CSX Growth Board. The subscription period for its initial public offering (IPO) – underwritten by SBI Royal Securities Plc – began on July 26 and runs till August 18.
