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Sihanoukville Autonomous Port Aims High For IPO

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Officials gather in front of cranes that handle shipping containers at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on the Kingdom’s coast. KHMER TIMES / SUPPLIED 

 Following a bookbuilding exercise that received a marked response from institutional investors, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) yesterday announced a share price of 5,040 riel ($1.26) yesterday for its upcoming initial public offering. 

The state enterprise that operates Cambodia’s principal and only deepsea port priced its shares near the top end of the range it had offered investors during the six-day bookbuilding late last month, which puts it on course to be the Kingdom’s largest IPO, raising $27 million for expansion. 

“The total bidding shares are 2.4 times higher than the total reserved shares for bookbuilding,” said Eiichiro So, chairman of SBI Royal Securities, the sole underwriter, book-runner and lead manager of the IPO. “We believe this bookbuilding has been a success and shows the high expectations of investors.” 

According to SAP, proceeds of the share offering will be used to purchase an additional 52 hectares of land for construction of a new dry port and to expand the existing container yard, as well as purchasing heavy machinery and repaying a $74 million soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency. 

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