Phnom Penh Water Supply listed on the Cambodian stock exchange on 18 April, 2012. After an initial surge of interest the stock has done nothing at all in terms of price and daily trades are low.
And despite initial optimism for the Cambodian exchange as a whole, Phnom Penh Water Supply, originally a wholly stated-owned enterprise, is the kingdom's one-and-only listed company.
The Cambodian government has been pushing Cambodia Telecom and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port to make an initial public offering. But they seem unable to get their acts together and various deadlines to do so have come and gone.
The most-likely next Cambodian listing is Grand Twins International (Cambodia), a Taiwanese-owned manufacturer of garments.
Should they list Cambodia will have two listed companies- the same as its much smaller neighbour Laos.
Various reasons are given for the moribund Cambodian market; investors lack an understanding of the market; companies are often unwilling to open their books to public scrutiny; and a plethora of rules and regulations, are the most quoted.
I simply wonder wonder though, why anyone would invest or trade on a market that operates within a wholly corrupt system.
Potential for insider trading or government manipulation of the market are so high a more active market would be nothing more than a crap shoot.
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