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Banking tycoon who courted S'pore's GIC under scrutiny in Myanmar

Douglas Toh
·3-min read

Shares in Yoma Strategic have plunged as much as 22%.

Serge Pun, one of Myanmar’s richest tycoons who counts GIC Pte and Norfund AS as investors in his banking business, is facing scrutiny from the country’s authorities.

Pun, the executive chairman and founder of Yoma Strategic Holdings Z59 Ltd, is cooperating with Myanmar regulators including the central bank on matters related to his banking business, the real estate company said Wednesday.

Shares of Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic slumped as much as 22%, the most since February 2021 on the news. The stock pared losses and traded at 11.8 cents, valuing the company at $265 million as of 2:25 p.m. local time.

Earlier this month, Myanmar’s central bank announced that action will be taken against seven banks including Yoma BankMya, which Pun also chairs, for granting housing loans that exceeded central bank limits as part of efforts “to stabilize the local economy.” The lenders will be fined and certain central bank officials will be disciplined for their lax supervision.

No charges have been filed against Pun, Yoma Strategic said in its filing in response to a Myanmar Now report which said he and eight other senior employees of his firms including the bank have been detained in the capital Naypyidaw. The online news outlet is banned in the country by the Myanmar junta.

Major General Zaw Min Tun, the lead spokesman for the ruling State Administration Council, did not answer calls seeking comment. Pun could not be immediately reached for comment, while Yoma Strategic and Yoma Bank did not reply to emails seeking comment.

Yoma Bank is one of Myanmar’s largest private lenders. Greenwood Capital, an affiliate of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, and Norway’s Norfund are listed as shareholders, according to the bank’s website. GIC and Norfund bought about 30% of the business for MMK130 billion ($54.0 million) in 2020.

The World Bank Group’s private-sector arm in 2022 decided to divest its stake in Yoma Bank after the US and European nations led sanctions targeting Myanmar’s military coup leaders. First Myanmar Investment, which Pun founded, controls 66% of the bank.

GIC declined to comment while Norfund did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Pun’s business interests reflected the potential that one of Asia’s poorest nations held for foreign investors before a 2021 military coup toppled a civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Among Yoma Strategic’s businesses are Yoma Land, a developer that has built luxury villas and golf courses in Myanmar, as well as the nation’s largest restaurant operator which operates the KFC franchise in the country.

Myanmar’s military junta is currently facing a serious threat from resistance and ethnic armed groups that have taken over large parts of the nation in an ongoing civil war.

Pun returned to Myanmar in 1991 after being based in Beijing and Hong Kong. One of his children, Melvyn is a former Goldman Sachs banker who’s now the chief executive officer of Yoma Strategic.

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