Myanmar junta cracks down on companies buying condos in Thailand

Myanmar’s military regime has made multiple arrests targeting companies and individuals accused of illegally transferring money abroad to purchase condominiums in neighbouring Thailand. On Monday, junta-controlled state media reported the arrest of Aung Kyaw Tun, the director of the Minn Thu Company, a real estate agency involved in selling high-end condos in Thailand to Myanmar nationals. Three people who purchased units through the company were also arrested, while its general manager, Min Thu Kyaw, had absconded, according to the reports. The move comes as the regime faces a growing crisis over the steady slide in the value of the country’s national currency, the kyat, since it seized power in February 2021. According to a recent report by Australian economist Sean Turnell, the kyat is now trading at about a quarter of its pre-coup value, falling below 5,000 kyat to the US dollar for the first time last month. “With the kyat in free fall, the main plank of [the junta’s] economic policy is now very simple—to secure as much foreign exchange as possible to allow it to buy the weaponry and munitions it needs to survive,” Turnell wrote in his report. The regime’s leaders have abandoned all efforts to develop the country’s economy and is now engaged in a “desperate scramble for the financial wherewithal to fund their war,” he added. According to unconfirmed reports, the crackdown on wealthy Myanmar nationals sending money abroad to buy property appears to be ongoing, and may involve at least one of the country’s most prominent businessmen. A source has told Myanmar Now that Theim Wai—also known as Serge Pun—and the directors of eight companies in his Yoma Group are also being questioned in connection with an alleged scheme to sell condominiums in four real estate projects in Bangkok to Myanmar nationals under a 25-year instalment plan. “They have been summoned and are being interrogated. So far, none of them have been released,” said the source, who is an investor in Myanmar’s real estate market. When contacted by Myanmar Now, a spokesperson for the Yoma Group insisted that none of the conglomerate’s affiliated companies or subsidiaries were involved in the sale of real estate in Thailand or any other country outside of Myanmar. However, the spokesperson declined to respond to questions about whether Theim Wai or any of his companies’ directors were being held for questioning. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/junta-fills-coffers-with-private-bank-magnates-bond-purchases Theim Wai, 70, is well-known as a major player in Myanmar’s real estate market. He also owns Yoma Bank, a digital payment company called Wave Money, Pun Hlaing Hospitals, and restaurant chains YKKO and KFC Myanmar. His First Myanmar Investment Public Co., Ltd. is listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange, while his Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd. and travel services firm Memories Group Ltd. are listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Yoma Bank, one of the largest private banks in Myanmar, is known to have purchased millions of kyat worth of treasury bonds being sold by the junta, indirectly helping to finance its ongoing effort to crush resistance to its rule. The deteriorating state of Myanmar’s economy has driven a dramatic rise not only in the value of the dollar, but also of gold and real estate. Last week, the regime announced that it had arrested more than 20 gold dealers in Yangon and Mandalay, accusing them of “destabilising” gold prices through speculation. Eleven individuals working at money transfer counters have also been arrested for alleged irregularities in their handling of foreign currencies, according to state media reports. Faced with a desperate need to hold onto its foreign currency reserves, the junta has also begun promoting barter trade with neighbouring countries. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/myanmar-junta-turns-to-barter-to-deal-with-growing-trade-deficit

Myanmar junta cracks down on companies buying condos in Thailand

The move is seen as part of an ongoing effort to keep money in the country as the kyat continues its precipitous decline in value

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