PHNOM PENH - Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) launched a book building process on Tuesday to determine the share price for an initial public offering (IPO) ahead of listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange late next month.
Once listed, PAS will be the fifth company on the CSX bourse, joining Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone Plc, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Grand Twins International (Cambodia) Plc, and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
Book building is the process by which an underwriter determines an IPO price, based on demand from institutional investors. An underwriter builds a book by accepting orders from fund managers, indicating the number of shares they want and the price they are willing to pay.
So Eiichiro, chairman of SBI Royal Securities, the sole underwriter for PAS, said roadshows were planned in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong to gauge the interests of potential investors, according to a report in the Khmer Times.
Investors attending the roadshow could get a book building application and state their bidding share prices, within a range of US$0.88 to $1.29, he said. The book building process would end on May 2.
“The guaranteed annual dividend is at least 5% in the first three years for all public investors,” he added.
PAS plans to issue 21.4 million shares, about 25% of the company’s authorized capital of $105 million, to raise its paid up share capital from $18.85 million to $27.74 million.
According to a brief issued to the CSX, the Cambodian government through the Ministry of Economy and Finance will control 75% of PAS after the IPO, public investors 22.5% and PAS’s employee stock ownership programme 2.5%.
PAS’s director-general Lou Kim Chhun said the IPO proceeds would be used to purchase land to build an inland container depot and a new container yard, new cranes, trucks and trailers to increase the capacity of the port.
As of December 2016, PAS recorded a 1.86% increase in cargo shipments year-on-year, while tonnage rose 4.45% to 3.9 million tonnes, according the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
The state-owned enterprise recorded an estimated $7.8 million in profit for 2016, down from $9.4 million in 2015.