Ownership of ATOM Myanmar shrouded in mystery after sanctions against its parent company

After a recent series of share transfers and sales, it is no longer clear who owns the controlling stake in the telecoms giant ATOM Myanmar—formerly Telenor Myanmar—and consequently who has access to the personal data of its millions of subscribers. The rapid changes of ownership began in November 2023 in an apparent response to the Canadian government’s imposition of sanctions against the Shwe Byain Phyu Group (SBP)—a conglomerate chaired by prominent crony businessman Thein Win Zaw, which was then the majority owner of ATOM’s parent company. Less than a week after Canada introduced sanctions against SBP on October 31, 2023, the conglomerate promptly initiated the transfer of its full, 80 percent stake in ATOM’s Singapore-based parent company Investcom to a newly incorporated entity, Myancom Holding Limited. The process of transferring the shares began on November 3, 2023—a mere three days after the Canadian sanctions were announced—and was completed on January 25, 2024. Official junta documents seen by Myanmar Now, dated November 2023, indicate that Myancom Holding was initially wholly owned by Thein Win Zaw’s wife, Tin Latt Min, until she sold her shares to other investors whose identities remain undisclosed. The Investcom press office declined to disclose the names of Myancom’s current owners or directors when reached for comment, but said, “Based on available information, Myancom Holding Ltd. has no connection to the state, military, or SBP Group. If you have evidence to the contrary, please inform us, and we will investigate and respond appropriately.” When informed that Myanmar Now had seen documents showing that Tin Latt Min owned Myancom Holding, Investcom denied the claim but refused to provide evidence refuting it. Investcom also refused again to disclose the names of Myancom’s shareholders, only claiming that there were two. Myanmar Now then asked if the shareholders had a family or employment relationship with Tin Latt Min or Thein Win Zaw, or were acting as proxies, to which the Investcom press office responded, “Upon reviewing relevant documents and information, we understand that the sale transaction in question is bonafide. We also believe that the involved shareholders are acting independently, without serving as representatives or proxies for others.” The Investcom press office also confirmed a connection between the transfer of shares and the Canadian sanctions. “The reason for this decision is for the Shwe Byain Phyu (SBP) Group to disclose; we cannot speak on their behalf,” the Investcom press office initially responded to Myanmar Now’s queries in an email. However, they continued: “It’s important to highlight that we were keen on implementing the divestment of shares following the imposition of Canadian sanctions on the [SBP] Group.” The Investcom press office added that complying with sanctions regimes is one of their top priorities and asserted that ATOM was now free from sanctions. Foreign sanctions and the enigma of ownership Tin Latt Min and Thein Win Zaw (Facebook) Three months after Canada announced sanctions against SBP, the United States (US) Department of the Treasury announced on January 31 that it had imposed its own sanctions against the company, as well as its chair Thein Win Zaw, his wife Tin Latt Min, and their adult children Theint Win Htet and Win Paing Kyaw. US sanctions apply to companies in which a sanctioned person or entity owns at least a 50-percent stake. If Tin Latt Min still owned an 80 percent stake in ATOM’s parent company, the sanctions against her would therefore have extended to ATOM. However, now that she has sold her shares to unknown buyers, ATOM appears to be shielded from sanctions. Tin Latt Min, Thein Win Zaw and Win Paing Kyaw also recently stepped down from the boards of ATOM Myanmar and Investcom Pte Ltd, and Win Paing Kyaw ended his tenure as ATOM’s deputy chief executive officer. ATOM’s minority 20-percent shareholder is still M1 Group, a Lebanese conglomerate owned by the family of that country’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati. M1 Group, which has a history of running telecommunications businesses in authoritarian countries, plays a substantive role in the management of ATOM Myanmar. Between July 2021 and December 2022, M1 Group subsidiary M1 Global Management Limited was paid US $31 million for administrative and support services provided to ATOM according to Investcom filings in Singapore. In the same period, by way of comparison, SBP Telecom Company Limited was paid US$2.2 million for advisory services. In its announcement of sanctions against SBP on October 31, the US Treasury Department described the conglomerate and the family behind it as “supporters of Burma’s military enterprises”, referring to Myanmar by an old name. The announcement specifically noted that SBP had a profit-sharing arrangement for the import and distribution of petroleum with the military-owned conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), against which the US has imposed sanctions since 2021 in response to the coup. After the announcement of US sanctions and Myanmar Now’s first attempts to contact SBP, the company published a press release on its website denying any business relationship with the Myanmar military or MEHL, and stating that it would appeal US sanctions, only to take it down two days later. An SBP representative contacted Myanmar Now, claiming by way of explanation that Thein Win Zaw and Tin Latt Min had divorced in September 2023. In the division of assets between them, the SBP representative said, Tin Latt Min had taken over the family’s investment in Investcom’s parent company at the time, Shwe Byain Phyu Telecom, and that Thein Win Zaw had taken the rest of Shwe Byain Phyu Group. Myanmar Now examined state media in September 2023 but found no notice of the divorce to substantiate these claims. Shwe Byain Phyu did not respond to further requests for comment. ATOM did not respond to Myanmar Now’s queries, but released a public statement claiming it “confirms that it has no association whatsoever with any sanctioned individuals or entities in any capacity, including as shareholders, ultimate beneficiaries, or members of the executive team.” Myanmar Now also made repeated attempts to contact Tin Latt Min, Thein Win Zaw, and Win Paing Kyaw individually by phone, offering the opportunity to comment on the ownership of Myancom or their reaction to Canadian and US sanctions, but there was no response. M1 Group, which was copied in emails with the Investcom Press Office, did not offer comments either. Notwithstanding ATOM’s and Investcom’s claims that the telecoms giant’s new majority owners are unconnected to the military or regime-owned entities, ATOM users once again have no way of knowing who controls their personal data as a result of the ownership changes, raising serious concerns about privacy and digital security. Telenor Myanmar’s sale and rebrand to ‘ATOM’ ATOM Myanmar, one of four mobile phone and internet service providers in Myanmar, is among the country’s most profitable businesses. Financial statements filed in Singapore for the period between July 29, 2021—Investcom’s date of incorporation—and December 31, 2022 show gross profits of US $206 million. ATOM Myanmar was formerly called Telenor Myanmar, and was owned by the Norwegian mobile operator Telenor before being sold to a consortium comprising M1 Group and SBP in March 2022, a year after Myanmar’s military coup. The Telenor Group had initially agreed to sell to M1 Group, but the coup regime demanded the inclusion of a local partner to serve as majority owner, paving the way for SBP to take up the controlling stake in the company, which rebranded from Telenor Myanmar to ATOM Myanmar in June 2022. The sale to SBP brought condemnation from civil society groups alarmed at the risk of handing Thein Win Zaw, a junta-connected crony, easy access to enormous amounts of customer metadata in the purchase, potentially allowing the coup regime to identify individual users as opponents to be targeted. A complaint against Telenor in Norway under the former OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct remains open. Telenor’s only remaining business with ATOM Myanmar is through its subsidiary Telenor Linx, which provides services to mobile operators. Among other things, the Telenor Linx agreement enables ATOM users to make and receive international calls in Myanmar. In response to questions regarding sanctions on SBP’s divestment and Myancom’s takeover of ATOM, Telenor spokesperson Grace Ngoh told Myanmar Now that the Telenor Linx agreement was “under review.” “We are assessing the situation constantly,” she said. SBP is a military-linked, family-owned conglomerate made up of more than 20 separate Myanmar-based companies and is best known for its chain of petrol stations. The family that owns SBP is also involved in a host of other enterprises, including jade mining, the timber industry, plastic bag production, the export of sugar and pulses, and the import of ammonium nitrate for use as an explosive in mining. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/the-crony-who-will-control-telenor-myanmars-customer-data/ A Myanmar Now investigation into SBP found evidence suggesting that before the military coup, much of the conglomerate’s wealth had never been taxed because it came from illicit sources. What is Myancom, and who is behind it? Since the junta moved to restrict access to Myanmar’s corporate registry in 2022, it is no longer possible to confirm the identity of companies’ owners or directors, their addresses, or their contact details using public information. A share transfer document from the Singapore corporate registry lists an address for Myancom Holding on Shwe Li Road in an upscale section of Yangon’s Kamayut Township, close to the office of the junta-controlled Union Election Commission. The same address used to be the location of Myanmar ECI Joint Venture, a barite producer established in 1991 by the now-defunct state-owned No. 3 Mining Enterprise and ECI Minerals Pte. Ltd., which was managed by the military-linked, Singapore-based businessman George Yin Soon. At one time Myanmar ECI Joint Venture was subject to European Union sanctions imposed against the previous military regime, the State Peace and Development Council, which held power in Myanmar between 1997 and 2011. The address is now the site of a rundown two-story house on a large compound with security guards and a small, inconspicuous sign reading “Myancom Trading.” Myancom Holding office on Shwe Li Road in Yangon's Kamayut Township (Myanmar Now) Myanmar’s corporate registry shows that Myancom Trading was established in early November 2023, soon after Canada introduced sanctions against SBP. Myancom Holding and Myancom Trading have no online presence, and there was no response when Myanmar Now attempted to call phone numbers listed online for Myanmar ECI Joint Venture. When can sanctions ‘bite’? The rapid and opaque sequence of changes in ATOM’s ownership prompts concerns not only about privacy but also about the sufficiency of foreign sanctions regimes for holding the military regime accountable. The activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM), which has pushed strongly for sanctions against SBP, said the Canadian and US measures against the crony group were starting to ‘bite’ but urged international governments to exert more pressure. “Singapore in particular needs to stop allowing junta-linked businesses from operating in its territory, which undermines the purposes of the international sanctions network,” a JFM spokesperson said. “It is notable that ATOM’s poorly veiled attempt to evade Canadian sanctions involved Singapore.” The sanctions against SBP may still have the impact desired by the Canadian and US governments due to SBP’s relationship with MEHL and its owners’ potential associations with the military regime. The US government sanctions require that all American entities or individuals wind down any remaining business relations with SBP or associated individuals or entities by March 1. Notably, however, following the resale of Tin Latt Min’s Myancom shares, ATOM may no longer be subject to foreign sanctions. The rapid changes to ATOM’s ownership illustrate the ease with which companies’ individual owners can restructure or transfer shares, and demonstrate the importance of sanctioning individual owners and directors, such as Thein Win Zaw and his family, and not only the entities they control, such as SBP. However, the same lack of transparency in ownership prompts the question of how foreign governments can keep track of such rapid changes or effectively enforce the sanctions they impose. Moreover, regardless of whether sanctions have the intended effect against SBP and the cronies connected with it, the urgent question of who controls the personal data of ATOM’s millions of users remains unresolved, leaving them vulnerable to surveillance and persecution.

Ownership of ATOM Myanmar shrouded in mystery after sanctions against its parent company

Due to the lack of transparency in the internet and mobile phone service giant’s ownership, its users cannot be certain who controls their sensitive information or whether military authorities have access to it

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