A subsidiary of American multinational investment bank and financial services company Morgan Stanley has bought $43.23 million of ACLEDA Bank shares through Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), setting a new record on the bourse.

“As disclosed at the CSX, the company named North Haven Thai Private Equity Rumdul acquired ACLEDA Bank shares via Negotiating Trading Method at CSX,” In Channy, President & Group Managing Director of ACLEDA Bank, told Kiripost in an email on Friday.

“I think this transaction is very important for both Cambodia and ACLEDA Bank since the investor has strong confidence in the stability of Cambodia's economic growth and the strength of ACLEDA Bank in the financial industry as well as being the first bank listed in Cambodia Stock Exchange,” Channy added.

The CSX said in a press release on April 26 that the trade was done via Negotiated Trading Method (NTM), which allows a pair of investors to place and execute their confidential orders in a single large transaction after successful negotiation.

“The NTM trades set the all-time highest record at CSX to date,” the press release said.

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The CSX added that a previous highest record was held by NTM on the purchase of Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone by a subsidiary of Royal Group of Companies, which was valued at $16.77 million in December last year.

CSX's Market Operations Director, Kim Sopha Nita, said on Friday the Cambodian banking industry has become attractive to foreign investment in recent years.

“The purchase means ACLEDA Bank received a good investment review and trust from such a large global institutional investor,” Sopha Nita told Kiripost.

“It appears that not only Acleda bank but our banking industry has become very attractive to foreign institutional investors for the past couple years,” she added.

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ACLEDA Bank’s profit was $166 million in 2021, up from $141 million in 2020, thanks to growth of loan portfolios, deposits and other transactional products and services.

The bank’s total assets were $7.8 billion in 2021, up from $6.5 billion in 2020.

ACLEDA Bank has said that the profit growth was largely because of a 10.19% increase in net interest income of $37.11 million in 2021.

By the end of 2021, loans outstanding increased by 20.46%, equal to $921.93 million, while deposit balance increased by 23.96% equal to $1.1 billion. Non-performing loans were within manageable level at 2.33%, according to ACLEDA.