On November 26, 2024, during ‘Invest Cambodia 2025: The Asian Tiger of the 21st Century’ – a half-day seminar, organised in partnership with B2B Cambodia – it was officially announced that Cambodian Investment Management (CIM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambodian Investment Management Holding, is joining the Moores Rowland Asia Pacific Network and rebranding as Moores Rowland (Cambodia) Co. Ltd.
We sat down to speak with Anthony Galliano, CEO of CIM (Moores Rowland Cambodia); Baudouin Coomans, Partner at Moores Rowland Indonesia; and Thomas Lee, Practicising Director at Moores Rowland Hong Kong, to understand what new business opportunities expanding the Moores Rowland network into Cambodia will provide.
History Of Cambodian Investment Management & Joining Moores Rowland
Galliano shared that he started CIM in 2009 with just two people, after working as a banker for two decades at Citibank and ANZ Bank. His business was initially focused on corporate finance, but he quickly realised that Cambodia had more of a debt market at the time and was not yet ready for equity or private investment, so he shifted to running annuity businesses.
“We entered the company registration business, the tax business, and eventually the accounting business,” said Galliano. “Our firm was quite small when we first started in 2009, and now we've grown to 30-something people in our accounting and tax business, with five CPAs and maybe 150 customers.”
We’re quite a significantly mid-sized firm, and it made sense for us to now graduate to joining an international firm, but it was really because of the relationship I have with Baudouin (Coomans) that we were able to finally come together after 20 years and decide this made sense.
“Moores Rowland, we can say, is really made out of partnerships in many countries with like-minded persons that have known each other over the years,” added Coomans. “We (Moores Rowland Indonesia) joined [the network] in 2003, that's more than 20 years ago, and we are still in touch with all the partners we have had over the years. We also started small in Indonesia, then we had some opportunities to grow, and as Anthony said, we happened to meet again and I happened to come to Cambodia as well.”
Moores Rowland Asia Pacific Network’s Expansion
The Moores Rowland global network has roots going as far back as 1866. Moores Rowland in the Asia Pacific currently operates in 13 countries, with Cambodia now becoming the 14th.
The firm’s core products are accounting, tax, financial audit, transfer pricing, business valuation, ISO certification, payroll, pre-IPO consultancy, corporate finance and transaction support, company establishment, ESG audit, and employment outsourcing.
“First of all, it's not just about growth, but about providing very good service and support to existing clients of Moores Rowland firms,” said Lee about the network’s continuing expansion across the Asia Pacific.
He added that he continues to see a big trend of investment from state owned enterprises and private entrepreneurs in China into ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, so Moores Rowland’s expansion into the country is fitting.
“We are growing with our clients,” continued Coomans. “We started with a number of smaller clients than the ‘Big Four’, but as those smaller clients get bigger, we also develop more services that we can sell to those clients… so our accounting firms from all over the region are growing with our clients. That is the success story that we are trying to nurture.”
Expanded Opportunities Through Moores Rowland Cambodia
Galliano believes that as the network continues to grow, Moores Rowland has the potential to become the next ‘big four’.
“Our core customer base is SMEs, and probably about 90 per cent foreigners, so we see an opportunity for Moores Rowland itself to sort of be the next big four… We see an opportunity with more mid- to large-sized companies coming from an international network,” he said.
Galliano added that another positive of joining the network for his business is the expansion of product capabilities.
“We're excited about ESG audits, which is a product now that Moores Rowland offers, pre-IPO, which fits in very well with our OBOR business, who's doing investment readiness and also doing financing and arranging for financing, and our corporate finance and transaction support business that we have already, can extend more within the Moores Rowland network than we're doing currently today in Cambodia,” he shared.
There's a cross pollination of activities that you’ll see we're doing more on an international basis.
Lee also pointed out a few key lesser explored areas in the Cambodian market that he sees offer great potential for foreign investment in the future.
“There is a very big opportunity for wealth management in Cambodia,” Lee began. “Currently, there is a new Trust Law which will help business and wealth succession from the older generation to the new generation, and it may attract foreign investment to come into Cambodia to make use of the trust structure, to invest, especially in property development.”
With Cambodia added to [the Moores Rowland Asia Pacific] map, we have a very young population in Cambodia, and it is one of the fastest growing countries in ASEAN, so we are very certain that adding Cambodia to our map will be a great opportunity for all of us.
“In addition to corporate finance, I would say merger and acquisition is also another opportunity, because with Cambodia developing quickly, there will be a lot of new startups beginning to mature, and starting to become a target for multinational or Asian investors to come into this market through merger or acquisition. Then we also have the opportunity of an IPO in Hong Kong, Singapore, or in the US on NASDAQ, that would be of a lot of interest to international investors,” Lee concluded.
Read More On Cambodia Business And Investment:
- Cambodia Business Climate 2024 And Future Of US-Cambodia Investment In Light Of Trump’s Presidency – Invest Cambodia 2025.
- Cambodia’s Investment Landscape Explored At ‘Invest Cambodia 2025: The Asian Tiger Of The 21st Century’.
- Cambodia’s Growing Trust Market – Interview With Hans Chen, CEO Of Stronghold Trustee.