According to a statement from F&N, Singapore-listed Fraser and Neave Ltd (F&N) wants to invest 19.2 million Singapore dollars (US$ 14 million) in Myanmar to develop a new brewery through a joint venture with local beverage behemoth Win Brothers.
According to a statement from the business headed by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, the brewery would be erected on 35 acres of property with a 50-year lease. The site’s location and the name of the beer that will be brewed were not disclosed.
F&N stated that it had paid S$ 1.3 million for its brewing licence, but that the land acquisition procedure had not to be completed.
“The completion of the Land Acquisition is conditional on the fulfilment of the Acquisition Agreement’s requirements, which include obtaining applicable regulatory clearances, converting the relevant land into industrial land, and entering into long-term leases in respect of the relevant land.” As a result, there is no certainty or assurance that the Land Acquisition will occur,” it stated.
In March, F&N and Win Brothers formed Sapphire Brewery Myanmar Limited (SBML), a joint venture. F&N controls 80% of SBML, while Win Brothers, which is owned by U Zaw Win, owns the remaining 20%.
SBML has been assessing the possibility of producing alcohol in Burma since its inception, according to a report filed with the Singapore Stock Exchange by F&N.
U Zaw Win is also a participant in Seagram Myanmar, a joint venture founded in 2019 by Pernod Ricard, Win Brothers, Yoma Strategic Holding, and Delta Myanmar Capital. In Myanmar, the business introduced the High Class, Imperial Blue, and 100 Pipers whisky brands.
F&N entered the Myanmar beer market in 1997 by purchasing a 55% interest in Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). Myanmar Brewery was founded in 1995 by APB and Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL), a military-owned company, to produce Myanmar Double Strong and Andaman Gold beer brands.
ThaiBev acquired F&N in 2013. MEHL paid $560 million for F&N’s interest in Myanmar Brewery two years later. F&N afterwards quit the Myanmar market.
Yet, its parent company, ThaiBev Public Company Ltd, has continued to grow in Myanmar. In 2017, it paid US$ 1 billion for a combined 75% share in Myanmar Distillery Company, the creator of the regionally popular whisky brand Grand Royal.
Whistleblower Distributed Denial of Secrets cited ThaiBev as one of the foreign partners of joint ventures paying huge sums in tax to the military for their drinks operations in an April report detailing tax filings from Myanmar’s Internal Revenue Department under the junta rule.
An examination of accessible tax filings from October to December 2021 revealed that subsidiaries of Heineken, Carlsberg, and ThaiBev paid the junta 49.9 billion kyats (about US$ 27.6 million) in special goods tax (SGT).
ThaiBev’s Grand Royal was the group’s largest taxpayer. The subsidiary paid the junta 25.9 billion kyats (US$ 14 million) in SGT in the fourth quarter of 2021. ThaiBev, Heineken, and Carlsberg paid a total of 12.6 billion Kyat (US$ 7 million) in commercial and income taxes throughout that time period.
According to the advocacy group Justice For Myanmar, the three businesses’ Myanmar operations might pay up to 250 billion kyats (US$ 155 million) in tax to the junta over the course of a year.
ThaiBev also pays taxes to the junta through its Myanmar subsidiary F&N, which manufactures Chang Beer.
After a four-year absence, F&N returned to Myanmar’s beer industry in 2019. It spent $70 million to establish Emerald Brewery in Yangon with its Myanmar partner Than Lwin Aye Yar Industrial Production and Construction Company, which is part of the Shwe Thanlwin Group, a crony business group.