Royal Group subsidiary – Telcotech Ltd – is expected to list the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) first qualified investor bond on September 3. Cambodia Investment Review has been informed the KHR 80 billion (around $20 million) bond was fully booked in off-market sales.
According to the brokerage firm SBI Royal Securities, the corporate bond has an annual coupon rate of 4.5% to be paid out over five years. In addition, the bond will be settled in US dollars and fully insured by the ADBs Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility.
The brokerage firm was not permitted to disclose who the qualified investors were in the deal. The exchanges regulator Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) will also not require quarterly reviewed disclosures. In addition, the regulator will not release the company’s annual audited reports publicly.
The 4.5% coupon rate is the lowest ever offered on the CSX and is a full 1% lower than the RMA (Cambodia) corporate bond also backed by the CGIF scheme and available in US dollars. The company was listed in April last year with the issuance of 800,000 bonds at 100,000 riels each raising KHR 80 billion ($20 million). The five-year amortized bond has a coupon rate of 5.5% per annum.
The new qualified investors initiative will allow companies to list with ‘relaxed’ disclosure requirements targeting only institutional or high net worth investors. The company is not entitled to tax privileges as a normal bond-listed company.
According to the company’s official profile, Telcotech Ltd launched in 2007 as a wholly-owned Cambodian company and was bought by the Royal Group in 2011.
The company has developed rapidly to accommodate international partnership commitments. It says its key stakeholders have unrivaled knowledge and experience of business in Cambodia—inside and outside of the telecommunications industry as well as at an international level.
