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ACLEDA: Banking on the future

ACLEDA Bank Plc Phnom Penh headquarters. Khmer Times

ACLEDA Bank Plc, one of the largest banks in Cambodia, announced that the China Development Bank (CDB), the world’s largest development finance institution, signed a $130 million long-term facility agreement.

In Channy, president and group managing director of ACLEDA, said that diversification of source of fund is very important to support sustainable and strategic growth of the bank.

“As one of the listed companies in the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), we can mobilise funding from the capital market to strengthen our capital, tap into savings and deposits from the financial market for short-term funding needs and from the international funding institutions such as CDB to support long term growth of the bank,” he said.

“With this $130 million long-term facility from CDB, the bank expects to reach out to at least another 5,000 small and medium enterprises.”

Lyu Zhinan, deputy general manager of CDB Guangxi branch, said that ACLEDA is the main bank supporting the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia. He said CDB firmly believes that this credit cooperation will help more Cambodian SMEs to fight the COVID-19 epidemic and resume production and will play a positive effect in promoting the economic recovery of Cambodia.

“CDB is willing to develop further cooperation with ACLEDA Bank, undertake a more important role
in promoting rapid economic growth and realising the true development potential in Cambodia,” Zhinan said.

As of the end of March 2020, ACLEDA Bank Plc had total assets of 25.01 trillion riels ($6.15 billion), total loans outstanding of 16.22 trillion riels($3.99 billion) and total deposits at 17.69 trillion riels ( 4.35 billion).

ACLEDA Bank Plc. is a public limited company, formed under the Banking
and Financial Institutions Law of the Kingdom of Cambodia based in Phnom Penh, with 261 offices covering all provinces, as well as 42 in Laos, and seven in Myanmar. ACLEDA started out in 1993 when it began providing micro credits to war victims. By now it is Cambodia’s major commercial bank.

With the ILO and UNDP as godparents, ACLEDA was established in January 1993, as a national nongovernmental organisation for micro and small enterprise development and credit by a group of founders. From its earliest days, it enjoyed the support of a number of major international development agencies whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged in ACLEDA’s “Roll of Honour”.

Two factors, namely the expansion of its network to cover all of Cambodia’s provinces and towns and its ability to operate at a profit to ensure its sustainability, led both its board and international partners to conclude that it should be transformed into a commercial bank.

This would not only provide a secure regulatory framework lacking under its previous status but would also enable it to enlarge its range of funding options (e.g., equity injection, taking public deposits, obtaining commercial interbank loans) to support the expansion of its core micro-finance business. With assistance from USAID, MPDF/IFC and UNDP – to name a few– a three-year programme for transformation commenced in 1998 which culminated in the granting of a specialised banking licence in October 2000.

Cambodian schools to re-open in stages from August

August will finally see the reopening of schools which has been shuttered for months now.

The Education Ministry said that it is in the process of re-opening schools, after more than three month of shutdown as part of the effort to combat COVID-19.

Other Education officers meanwhile told Khmer Times on conditions of confidentiality that about 15 ‘high-quality’ private international schools, including Japanese, English, American and French institutes, with approximately 20,000 students will be allowed to reopen first as a test case.

Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told Khmer Times today that the process will be divided into three phases based on health safety standards of the schools.

“The first phase will include schools with high safety standards [preventive measures against the virus spread],” Mr Soveacha said. “The second phase will focus on schools with moderate standards and the third will be schools with minimum standards. Each class must have not more than 15 students and social distancing must be strictly enforced and other areas where contact may take place, must also be eliminated.”

Mr Soveacha added the Ministry of Education is working with all relevant parties, especially the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on the re-opening based on health measures and socio-economic factors.

“In the near future, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport will announce the timeline of and necessary measures for the first phase to the public,” he said, adding that the timelines for the second and third stages depend on the effectiveness of the first stage.

“The ministry will carefully analyse the first stage and then go on to analyse the second and third stages, based on plans which the ministry will make with relevant ministries and institutions,” Mr Soveacha added.

Third Aeon Mall receives official approval

From being a duo, Aeon Malls are set to become a trio with a third gaining approval from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) and scheduled to open in 2023.

The CDC said it had approved the project among others in a news release.

According to the CDC, the new investment project of Aeon Mall (Cambodia) is located on Samdech Hun Sen Blvd, the so called 60-Metre Street in Chak Angre Krom commune, Meanchey district, in southern Phnom Penh.

The investment amount was registered as $289.6 million.

According to Aeon Mall’s website, the Aeon Mall Cambodia No 3 – its tentative name – will cover 174,000 square meters (sq m).

Ann Thida, associate director of real estate company CBRE, said yesterday that the new investment shows the retail sector is in demand.

“In the southern part of Phnom Penh, there is no supermarket or mall yet opened, so it shows the potential,” Thida said. “The investment is in the centre of an area with potential because many middle class people will move there.”

In the same area of Samdech Hun Sen Blvd, property projects – both commercial and residential areas – are being constructed. Those developers include Chip Mong Group constructing Chip Mong Landmark 60M on 100 hectares of land and Borey Pheng Hout investing in Star Diamond mall and residential projects, as well as other property investments.

However, Thida said in the near future, when significant commercial and residential projects become operational, there will be tough competition between retail services in that area.

“Currently, the retail situation is good but in the next two to three years there will be tough competition among the malls, so each competitor has to prepare strategies to attract customers,” Thida said.

It will be the third mall under the Aeon name. The first at 68,000 sq m was officially launched in 2014. It cost $205 million and on Sothearos Blvd, Chamkar Mon district, an areas close to Koh Pich Island.

The second 85,000 sq m Aeon Mall cost $120 million and was opened officially in 2018 in Sen Sok district, in the northern part of the capital.