Bonna Realty Turns Its Back on CSX

KHMER TIMES
MAY KUNMAKARA

Bonna Realty’s appraisal and valuation services are used by 85 percent of the major commercial banks in the country including the National Bank of Cambodia. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Bonna Realty Group has voluntarily ceased to be accredited with the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) as the leading service provider for property appraisal and valuation for listed companies, said the group’s president Sung Bonna yesterday.

Mr. Bonna told Khmer Times that his group had been seeking since 2012 to be listed formally as a public company on the CSX, but to no avail.

“The CSX has just been moving too slow. At the same time, the irony is that Bonna Realty has been accredited by the CSX as the leading service provider for property appraisal and valuation for CSX-listed companies,” he pointed out.

“But this CSX accreditation has got us nowhere. We are paying the CSX every year fees for the accreditation but we have yet to receive a single client from the stock exchange. Our stock exchange is just too small,” added the real estate tycoon.

Mr. Bonna said his real estate group now will be concentrating on other clients to further diversify its appraisal and valuation services. Bonna Realty’s appraisal and valuation services are used by 85 percent of the major commercial banks in the country including the National Bank of Cambodia.

Cambodia’s stock exchange, which has moved at a snail’s pace since it opened in 2012, has only four listed companies ‒ Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Grand Twins International and the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone.

In a CSX document seen by Khmer Times, the date Bonna Realty officially ceased to be accredited with the stock exchange was September 26.

Lamun Soleil, CSX’s director of market operations, admitted that the securities exchange “is not moving as fast as it should be.”

But he was optimistic that more companies would seek CSX-listing.

“We had requests from newcomers. Also we had a request from a big Chinese company, keen to enter the Cambodian capital market,” said Mr. Soleil.

Last October, the locally-owned Sonatra Securities withdrew its application to be listed due to the CSX’s slow action. Similarly, Vietnamese-owned Sacombank ‒ a brokerage firm ‒ turned its back on CSX listing in March 2013.

Mr. Bonna was arrested on June 10 for allegedly issuing a bounced check to a certain Keo Hun. According to court documents he borrowed $400,000 in cash from Keo Hun last year. This year, according to the court, Mr. Bonna returned the amount by writing out an allegedly dud check. Local media reports said the check was written out for $400,000, though the exact amount could not be confirmed.

Mr. Bonna, was granted bail on June 23 by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and released temporarily in response to a request from his lawyer.

The real estate tycoon told Khmer Times that his group’s exit from the CSX was not related to his arrest, which he stressed was a private matter.