Condominium developer JS Land (CSX:JSL) hosted an appreciation dinner thanking investors and stakeholders involved in the company’s recent public listing as well as outlining the company’s five-year plan.
JSL is the Cambodia Securities Exchanges Growth Board’s second only listing after DBD Engineering last year and the 15th company to list either bonds or shares on the exchange since inception in 2011.
The IPO listed 8,281,000 shares (32.21% of total shares) at KHR 1,900 or $0.467 per share raising $2.12 million and putting the company’s market capitalization at $12 million.
Cambodia Investment Review has reported on JSL ultra-strong post-IPO share price trading upwards of KHR 8,200 then falling to around KHR 4,000 a share today.
JSL Executive Chairman Oknha Koy Le San welcomed those in attendance and firstly thanked all his IPO consultant team including:
Iv Rannarith and team from RHB securities Cambodia as the underwriter
Ng Yee Zent and team from Grant Thornton as auditors
Tiv Sophonnora and team from R & T Sok & Heng as the legal advisor
Ross Wheble and team from knight frank as the property valuers
He also thanked the company’s cornerstone investors, David Yap, Conan Yap and Nicholas Tang – “for entrusting your investment with JS Land PLC, I can assure you that with all of you on board now, the sky will be our limit,” he said.
According to official documents JSL major shareholders (5% of more) are Oknha Koy Le San 25.2%, Dato’ Jack Yap Ting Chiat 25.2%, Oknha Meng Lee 6.80% and Kin Solyta 6.80%.
Ross Wheble, from Knight Frank, told Cambodia Investment Review that Knight Frank was grateful that JS Land place its confidence in us to undertake the real estate asset valuations for their IPO listing adding “it was a first for Knight Frank, with more in the pipeline”.
JLS ready to action five-year plan
Speaking at the dinner CEO of JSL Dato’ Jack Yap also highlighted the company’s next five-year plan and thanked his team and those involved in the listing process.
“I have shared an overview of our company next five years and today, once again, I would like to take this opportunity to share with all of you what is in store for JS LAND PLC for the next five years so to assure everyone that our company has planned and is ready to live up to the value that is reflected in our share price.
Since we started in 2014, JS Land has always foreseen that the Sen Sok area will be one of the main residential areas in Phnom Penh and that is why we focused and started TGR1 and continue TGR 2 at the area.
Currently, Sen Sok has the most supply of clustered homes in Phnom Penh and accounted for 25% total supply of landed homes. In recent years, you also see hypersmart like Aeon Mall, Marco, Chip Mong mall and other amenities like function hall, international school and hospital all located in this area. All these means our property development has the correct location, location and location.”
Affordable prices and good location is key for JS Land
Cambodia Investment Review has reported on the growing demand for affordable housing in Phnom Penh as well as the Cambodian government stating it will focus would be on affordable and mid-range properties to meet the demands of a population with an average age of 27, with 55 percent in the Gen-Z and Gen-Y age groups.
Speaking about the company’s land development plans Jack said: “With the area growing so fast, the land price also see a triple jump in these few years. Before the land price increase further or become scarce in the area, we have planned well ahead and already secured a land bank of 4.2 hectares for future development.
We are optimistic to develop the first Technology Park in Cambodia on this land. This 4.2-hectare land is sizeable enough for 10 to 15 more major condominiums and other commercial projects worth a few hundred million dollars gross development value and enough for JS Land to develop for the next 5 to 8 years. In another word, at JS Land, we have landbank, landbank and landbank.”
Cambodia adopted a national housing policy in 2014 to promote the development of more affordable housing projects. The definition of affordable housing is currently valued at approximately $30,000.
It is predicted Cambodia will need an additional 50,000 homes a year until 2030, to properly accommodate a city population that is expected to be between 4 and 7 million, a large increase from around 2 to 3 million today.
