Singapore-listed Fraser and Neave Limited (F&N) plans to invest 19.2 million Singaporean dollars (US$ 14 million) in Myanmar to build a new brewery through a joint venture with local beverage conglomerate Win Brothers, according to a statement from F&N.
The brewery will be built on 35 acres of land with a lease term of 50 years, a statement from the company controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi said. The location of the site and the name of the beer that will be brewed was not mentioned.
F&N said it had paid S$ 1.3 million to acquire its brewing license, but the process of acquiring the land had yet to be completed.
“Completion of the Land Acquisition is subject to fulfilment of conditions under the Acquisition Agreement, including the obtainment of relevant regulatory approvals, conversion of the relevant land into industrial land and entry into long-term leases in respect of the relevant land. Accordingly, there is no certainty or assurance that the Land Acquisition will materialise,” it said.
F&N established a joint venture, Sapphire Brewery Myanmar Limited (SBML), with Win Brothers in March. F&N holds an 80 percent stake in SBML and Win Brothers, which is owned by U Zaw Win, owns the rest.
SBML has been evaluating the feasibility of producing alcohol in Myanmar since its establishment, F&N said in a report filed at the Singapore Stock Exchange.
U Zaw Win is also a partner with Serge Pun in Seagram Myanmar, a joint venture formed in 2019 among French drinks group Pernod Ricard, Win Brothers, Yoma Strategic Holding and Delta Myanmar Capital. The company launched High Class, Imperial Blue and 100 Pipers whisky brands in Myanmar.
F&N entered Myanmar’s beer market in 1997 by buying a 55 percent stake in Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). APB set up Myanmar Brewery with Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), a military-owned conglomerate, in 1995 to make Myanmar Double Strong and Andaman Gold beer brands.
In 2013, ThaiBev bought F&N. Two years later MEHL bought F&N’s stake in Myanmar Brewery for US$ 560 million. F&N subsequently exited Myanmar’s market.
However, its parent firm—ThaiBev Public Company Limited—continued to expand in Myanmar. In 2017, it acquired a combined 75 percent stake in Myanmar Distillery Company, the maker of the locally famous whisky brand Grand Royal, for US$ 1 billion.
In an April report disclosing tax filings from Myanmar’s Internal Revenue Department under the junta regime, whistleblower Distributed Denial of Secrets listed ThaiBev as among the foreign partners of joint ventures paying massive sums in tax to the junta for their drinks businesses.
An analysis of available tax filings from October to December 2021 showed that subsidiaries of Heineken, Carlsberg and ThaiBev paid 49.9 billion kyats (about US$ 27.6 million) in specific goods tax (SGT) alone to the junta.
The biggest taxpayer in the group was ThaiBev’s Grand Royal. Its subsidiary paid 25.9 billion kyats (US$ 14 million) in SGT to the junta in the fourth quarter of 2021. The total amount of commercial and income taxes paid by ThaiBev, Heineken and Carlsberg in that period was 12.6 billion Kyat (US$ 7 million).
Advocacy group Justice For Myanmar estimates that the Myanmar operations of the three companies could be paying as much as 250 billion kyats (US$ 155 million) in tax to the junta for a full year.
ThaiBev also pays taxes to the junta through its subsidiary F&N, which produces Chang Beer in Myanmar.
F&N re-entered Myanmar’s beer market in 2019 after a four-year absence. It invested US$ 70 million to set up Emerald Brewery in Yangon to produce Chang beer with its Myanmar partner Than Lwin Aye Yar Industrial Production and Construction Company, which is part of Shwe Thanlwin Company, a crony business group.
