Japanese drinks giants Kirin Holdings booked an impairment loss of over 21.4 billion yen ($193 million) in the six months through June on account of its beer production businesses in Myanmar. But it is not planning to exist in Myanmar, Reuters reported quoting senior executive officer Toru Yoshi .
Back when it looked like Myanmar had a chance at democracy, American lawyer Eric Rose opened a firm in Yangon to advise investors interested in the newly opened country. In 2014, a client asked him to evaluate a potential joint venture with several state-owned pharmaceutical companies, Rose got a glimpse at how the military ran business ventures.
As part of due diligence, Rose talked to the directors and reviewed the financials of the companies, which were under the control of a government still dominated by generals that had run Myanmar since the 1960s. The businesses were inefficient, the equipment outdated, the employees poorly trained veterans, he said. The companies’ leaders were former military officers without business experience. “They were losing money left and right,” he said. “There was no prospect of these businesses ever turning around.”
Myanmar’s Economy in Freefall Under Military Regime
Myanmar’s Economy in Freefall Under Military Regime
Feature: The military regime s security forces guarding City Hall in downtown Yangon Feb.6 / The Irrawaddy
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By The Irrawaddy 22 April 2021
Before last year’s November election, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank predicted that Myanmar would bounce back strongly from the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the economy set to grow at around 6 percent in 2021.
In the immediate aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1 coup, junta leaders sought to keep the economy on track by presenting themselves as business-friendly and saying that economic policies would remain unchanged during the state of emergency. The junta even appointed some individuals to Myanmar’s key economic ministries who were already well-connected and well-known to the international community.