Updated on
Summary A blacklisted Myammar businessman Zaw Zaw his shifted his fortunes to Singapore to avoid sanctions.
As Myanmar implements reforms and foreign investors jet in, most find precious few ways to make money. There is no stock market. A new foreign investment law is delayed. And the biggest local companies are entangled in U.S. and European sanctions.Zaw Zaw, one of Myanmars most powerful businessmen, wants to change that in a complex transaction in Singapore that would blaze a path for foreign investors into a company at the heart of Myanmars economy - and help Myanmars sanctions-hit tycoons rebrand themselves.In an interview in his Yangon office, he said the transaction - a planned S$70 million ($57.1 million) reverse takeover of Singapore bed linen maker Aussino Group (A15.SI) - was moving forward and he expects Singapore regulators to complete a review of his books in three to six months, clearing the way for Aussinos transformation into a Myanmar-backed company harnessed to Zaw Zaws energy division.Annual revenues of $500 million make his Max Myanmar Group a domestic leviathan. But his past friendship with former dictator Than Shwe makes him a regime crony, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which blacklisted him under targeted sanctions three years ago.A 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable described how Zaw Zaw actively seeks favor with the senior generals.Washington has suspended some sanctions and embraced Myanmars leaders but left embargoes in place against businessmen whose companies are accused of helping generals plunder the economy and commit human rights abuses during 49 years of military rule.Zaw Zaw says he thinks it is a matter of time before business leaders are embraced by the West, too.He expects progress during a visit to the United States by reformist President Thein Sein next week and in a separate U.S. trip that began on Monday by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner.Washington may reward other signs of progress, possibly relaxing a ban on imports of Myanmar-made products, but it is unclear how far they will go. Most analysts expect targeted sanctions on connected tycoons to remain for some time.That leaves Zaw Zaw at the mercy of regulators in Singapore, where his reverse merger is being watched closely as a potential model for other sanctions-crippled companies in Myanmar.
