Singapore-based holding company Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (ETC) has announced an agreement to sell its controlling stake in Golden City, a Yangon real estate development built on land leased from the Myanmar military, but a rights group said the deal fails to fully sever the company’s ties to the junta.
Singapore Exchange-listed ETC said it would sell the stake in the development, which is built on land leased from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army) and the Office of the Quartermaster General of the Myanmar military, to Grand Ally Pte Ltd.
Under the agreement, the stake will be sold for Singapore $4 million, at a loss of S$80.2 million. The deal made on July 1 involves the sale of the ETC Singapore subsidiary DAS Pte Ltd., which owns 70 percent of the Singapore company Uni Global Power, according to its announcement.
Uni Global Power owns 70 percent of the Myanmar company Golden Land Real Estate Development, which is the developer of the Golden City project. Grand Ally Pte Ltd. is a private Singapore company set up in February this year and owned by key members of ETC who manage the Golden City Project.
Justice For Myanmar (JFM), a rights watchdog, said Grand Ally is controlled by Li Bo, a Chinese citizen who is the vice president of sales and marketing for ETC, and the company’s regional sales and marketing director for Myanmar. The other stakeholder and directors are Lai Xuejun and Zhang Xiaoping, who are also Chinese citizens.
JFM pointed out that ETC’s sale involves related parties, and creates risks that the company may still maintain its links to the Myanmar military through personnel and stakeholders.
“As Grand Ally is registered in Singapore, Singapore will continue to be exposed to Golden City’s business with the Myanmar military, which is committing ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity,” it said.
Golden City is ETC’s sole real estate development and the sale and rent of property in the complex is its main source of revenue. Myanmar-based project company Golden Land Real Estate Development, and its Myanmar-based partner Nature Link Co. Ltd. signed a lease agreement with the Quartermaster General’s office in 2013.
Then, a few days later, they were granted a Myanmar Investment Commission permit by the military’s proxy government, led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
Nature Link is part of Jewellery Luck, a crony-owned group of companies that develop real estate, operate hotels and have mining and forestry interests based in Yangon. Jewellery Luck Group of companies owns 30 percent of Golden Land Real Estate Development through its subsidiary.
According to ETC’s 2017 annual report, the Golden City deal with the military involves a “land use premium” payment of US$6.3 million, plus annual payments of US$2.8 million, with exemptions on lease payments from 2013-16.
The total in payments to the military over the maximum 70-year term amounts to US$191.1 million. As of Dec. 31, 2019, ETC had accrued US$32.185 million in land lease payments to the Myanmar army.
In October 2021, a legal memorandum found that international law and guidance places due diligence obligations on the SGX, and possible liability on the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Singapore government, in relation to companies like ETC doing business with the Myanmar military.
The legal memo also raised the possibility of reputational and sanctions risks for the SGX, its regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and by extension, the Singapore government, should it not prevent continued payments from ETC to the Myanmar army.
Through its campaign of terror against the people, the Myanmar military junta has so far murdered over 3,700 people, arbitrarily arrested more than 23,700, committed indiscriminate air strikes and shelling, torture, and sexual violence, and displaced at least 1.5 million since the coup attempt in 2021.
JFM spokesperson Ma Yadanar Maung said that ETC is a longstanding business partner of the Myanmar military that is complicit in the junta’s genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
“ETC’s divestment was necessary but raises further questions that we urge Singapore authorities to address, including whether SGX will remain exposed to the Golden City project and the fact that a private Singapore company will continue to bankroll the murderous junta,” she said.
The rights group called on Singapore banks to ensure that they do not hold accounts for Grand Ally or support the Golden City project in any way. It has also called on governments to impose sanctions on Grand Ally Investments, its Myanmar partner Jewellery Luck Group of Companies, and their owners and directors.
