Myanmar

Myanmar’s equity capital market is set for fresh impetus as a handful of companies line up IPOs, with a member of the regulatory body predicting it will be the shot in the arm needed for a market that has slipped into obscurity this year. But although more issuers will be welcome, it is a change in the investor base that is really needed.

Foreign investors look set to be allowed into Myanmar's capital markets soon, with new laws close to approval. The news is very welcome as growth has stalled in the country's markets since the first shares started trading on the Yangon exchange last year. However, any celebrations must be tempered by the experiences of Myanmar's neighbouring countries and it must take care to avoid similar pitfalls.

A year after the country’s new government passed a financial institutions law to modernize a creaking banking system, Yangon’s licensed commercial bankers are still waiting for regulators to implement the reforms and make the system fit for purpose. In the meantime, savvy locals are trying to get on with building a banking industry

MYANMAR

Myanmar’s elite are having to adapt to new realities. For Htoo Htet Tay Za, head of AGD Bank, that means trying to create a modern bank in a backward financial system while battling allegations of cronyism levelled against his family

Myanmar’s First Private Bank will become the fourth name to list on the country’s budding exchange, with its shares set to start trading on January 20.

A subsidiary of Malaysian telecommunications company Axiata Group has expanded the bookrunner group of a $400m loan, which was overhauled and boosted from the original $100m in November.

Myanmar’s capital market is set for a fillip in 2017 from foreign investors who will gain greater access thanks to new laws coming into force. Expectations are high but the country will be wary of letting any momentum fade, as has happened to some of its neighbours. Jonathan Breen reports.

A subsidiary of Malaysian telecommunications company Axiata Group, which approached the loan market for $100m in June, is overhauling and increasing the financing to $400m to fund potential acquisitions.

ASEAN’s capital markets regulators are working on a plan to grow the domestic bond markets of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), with the Securities and Exchange Commission Cambodia (SECC) leading the charge.

State-owned Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corp has clinched an IPO worth D2.1tr ($95.8m) after selling shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, according to a disclosure with the bourse.

Local outfit Myanmar Citizens Bank officially floated its shares on the Yangon Stock Exchange on Friday, the third ever listing on the YSX.