Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) kicked off a road show and bookbuild process for its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday to prospective investors, following the announcement last month that it would seek to become the fifth listed company on Cambodia’s sleepy stock exchange.
SAP, the state-owned enterprise that operates Cambodia’s sole deep-sea port, is seeking to raise as much as $27 million for the expansion of its facilities when it lists on the Cambodia Securities Exchange in late May.
It will offer a 25 percent stake by issuing some 21.44 million shares at a price range between $0.88 to $1.29 per share, with the final price to be announced after the six-day bookbuild session.
If SAP can successfully raise $27 million, it would be the largest Cambodian IPO to date on a local stock market that has struggled with persistent low-level trading.
Despite the allure of the company, turnout yesterday at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal was dominated by uniformed port employees, with only a few dark-suited prospective investors and mix of students from the capital’s business schools showing up.
However, Eiichiro So, chairman of SBI Royal Securities, the sole underwriter for the port, book-runner and lead manager of the IPO, said that the there was already a high level of institutional interest in the stock, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, already snapping up 54 percent of shares before the price had even been determined.
“For JICA to commit like this to the port, it shows that they have faith in its growth potential, not that we lack investors,” he said, adding that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia eagerly approved the purchase order from a development agency. “I believe this is the first time JICA has done something like this.”
He explained that the company has specifically targeted investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand, claiming that many had already shown an interest to buy in.
“We have already been approached by numerous international…