Major Japanese companies are diving even deeper into Cambodia’s real estate and financial market, the latest being Sathapana Bank Plc investing an undisclosed amount into its new 22-storey headquarters in Phnom Penh’s unofficial Central Business District along Norodom Boulevard.

Sathapana board chairman Chang-Woo Han told Post Property the 22-storey building, which can house 1,200 workers and includes five underground levels, is slated for completion in 2019. He added that the project belongs to Maruhan Investment Cambodia, led by Sathapana’s parent company Maruhan Corporation of Japan.

Han, however, did not reveal the amount of capital that is being invested for the new headquarters.

“I am confident that Cambodia will continue to grow enormously in every sector in the future, especially the banking sector with strong support from the government and the National Bank of Cambodia. Now is the best opportunity to construct this building,” he said.

The building sits on a land plot of 2,113 square meters on the corner of Street 172 and Street 174 along the busy, corporate building-lined Norodom Boulevard.

According to Han, the new building will be equipped accordingly with the aim of enhancing the bank’s services to a larger scale for its customers, embodying a central point in shaping the company’s future strategies.

With 163 branches and more than 4,000 employees across Cambodia, Sathapana Bank was registered as possessing $120 million in capital and $929 million in assets as of December 31 last year, while its total credit loan and total deposits clocked in at $611 million and $583 million respectively.

Secretary of state of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, Pen Sophal, said he was looking forward to seeing the international standards applied by the Japanese company in constructing its new headquarters.

According to Kim Heang, president of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, the area where the building is to be erected once had an 8-storey limit. However, with news of Sathapana’s 22-storey building, the land price in the area would subsequently spike. Heang estimated the price per square metre in the mentioned area to range from $5,500 and $6,000.

Based on the land price estimates Heang gave, the 2,113 square metres of land designated for the new Sathapana building is worth up to $12.7 million.

“The price of the plots in this area will continue to rise, but at a low rate seeing that it is already expensive,” said Heang.

In Channy, president and group managing director of Acleda Bank, said the move to construct a new building of such massive scale was a reflection of Sathapana’s stability and confidence in the banking and real estate sectors. It could also be a way to earn more trust from both its existing and prospective customers. Channy said he was certain more Japanese investors would be coming to invest in Cambodia.

“If there were no competitors, everyone would forget; therefore, with creating new products, having competitors, having proper infrastructure and quality services to satisfy customers’ needs, then their services would be duly utilised.”