U Zaw Min Win: “We will be much more financially competitive as a public company.”

NEWLY founded Golden Land East Asia Development Limited announced last week it plans to sell 100,000 shares next month in an initial public offering (IPO) it hopes will raise the trading company K1 billion.

Golden Land East Asia Development Ltd was set up by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) in February this year at the request of the Ministry of Commerce.

U Zaw Min Win, who is on the board of directors, said the company has decided to sell shares with a par value of K10,000 each and is aiming to attract investors from all sectors of Myanmar society.

“Initially, we will be trying to raise up to K1 billion in capital by selling shares to the public,” U Zaw Min Win said, adding that the company would then venture into international trading.

“We realise that we will be much more financially competitive as a public company. That’s one of the reasons why we set it up,” U Zaw Min Win said.
He said Myanmar produced a number of valuable commodities and products that could be sold inter- nationally, while Myanmar’s domestic market offered many trading opportunities.

“However, many of our products still lack compet- itiveness in the global market. We would improve some of them to international standards.”
U Zaw Min Win said the company had already determined where it wanted to trade but refused to be drawn on exactly what products or commodities it would deal in.

“The company will be mainly engaged in trading with East Asian countries, especially China, which is Myanmar’s largest trading partner,” he said.

Golden Land this month started building a Chinese liaison office for the UMFCCI in Nanning, in China’s southeastern Guangxi Autonomous Region.
Company officials visited the site for a groundbreaking ceremony on July 12, with the trip also serving as an opportunity to inspect potential locations for Golden Land branches in China.

“The first branch will be in Shanghai or Guangzhou,” U Zaw Min Win said.
The company is currently headquartered at the UMFCCI building in Yangon.
U Zaw Min Win said that since Golden Land will be a trading company and not an investment or manufacturing firm, it could potentially turn a profit within the first year.

“As a public company, we will make transparency a priority and try to give shareholders clear information minute-by-minute,” he said.

However, details on who will be running the company and what it will be dealing in remain unclear, despite the firm’s initial intention to launch an IPO this month. A company prospectus was last week not available for people interested in the August stock sale.

Dr Myan Lin, managing director of Lin Star Co. Ltd, which has exported beans and pulses for the past 10 years, said he was interested in buying shares but plans to hold out for the time being.

“I’d rather wait to see what the management looks like,” he said.
“A qualified management team is the key to making a successful public company. And Myanmar’s public companies are usually weak in that regard,” Dr Myan Lin said.

However, he agreed that a public firm would stand a better chance of surviving in the international market because it would have stronger financing.

“We should have more public companies in Myanmar to compete against international rivals that trade in the global market,” he said.

Golden Land plans to handle the IPO itself but will later list with the Myanmar Security Exchange Centre , U Zaw Min Win said.