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YANGON – Myanmar’s foremost beverage and media tycoon Thein Tun, who was as soon as seen as a “godfather” within the outdated world of crony enterprise, has died aged 85.
After a long time of enterprise within the beer, banking, media, retail and property industries, the octogenarian handed away in Bangkok on April 18, native media reported.
Thein Tun and his household owned and printed the now-suspended Myanmar Instances newspapers and have been the native associate of Danish brewer Carlsberg. His household additionally runs the Tun Business Financial institution.
As soon as an influential old-school magnate, Thein Tun’s status and funds in recent times, ridden with controversies, have been overtaken by extra reformist and modernizing tycoons.
His failing financial institution, troubled possession of Myanmar Instances – which he purchased in 2014 – and pressure with Carlsberg pointed to an getting old grandee of the crony capitalist class who did not adapt to a quickly altering Myanmar.
“A few of Thein Tun’s enterprise ventures struggled to succeed through the financial growth after 2012. His financial institution went nowhere,” mentioned Thompson Chau, previously a longtime editor on the Myanmar Instances.
“Pressure with Carlsberg on company governance and management led the three way partnership to path Heineken whose personal three way partnership associate – sarcastically Thein Tun’s son-in-law [alcohol beverage tycoon Aung Moe Kyaw] – interfered far much less.
“Thein Tun spoke of his remorse at buying the Myanmar Instances, whose troubles confirmed how conventional tycoons struggled to deal with the problem of proudly owning a media group in a rustic in ‘transition,’” mentioned Chau, who stepped down as affiliate editor and chief reporter on the day of the coup.
Tun Business Financial institution, previously the Tun Basis Financial institution, has solely 25 branches nationwide regardless of being round for many years and is dwarfed by newer banks. Kanbawza Financial institution, which was based about the identical time, now boasts 500 branches.
Altering the identify to “Tun Business Financial institution” didn’t make the financial institution extra commercially viable, enterprise executives in Yangon mentioned.
In a company governance report for 2020 by the Yangon-based Myanmar Centre for Accountable Enterprise and consulting agency Yever, Tun Business Financial institution ranked within the backside six banks – twenty third out of 29 banks. Non-public banks usually rank within the prime 10 compared with state-owned banks.
Powerful instances at his newspaper
After the coup, Thein Tun was most well-known for an argument involving the Myanmar Instances, which he purchased in 2014.
Thein Tun first purchased shares in Myanmar Consolidated Media from Tin Tun Oo in 2014 and have become the only proprietor after shopping for the remaining shares from Ross Dunkley, an Australian writer, the next yr.
The every day broadsheet was pressured to droop operations when workers collectively resigned in protest and customers referred to as out the outlet in February 2021.
Based on a number of workers, Thein Tun’s administration demanded the newspaper toe the army’s editorial line, at a time when the overwhelming majority of the nation’s non-public press remained defiant and united of their editorial independence.
“Whereas the tycoon himself was not a lot straight concerned within the every day operations of the paper, the final chief editor successfully acted as his spokesperson,” mentioned a former reporter who declined to be named.
“She [the editor in chief] was actively self-censoring information reporting, banning the phrase Rohingya and suppressing or firming down protection which may appear to be overly important towards the Tatmadaw [military], companies that purchase commercials and different ‘delicate’ entities.”
The newspaper turned out to be among the many very first casualties of the coup, as tycoons and their companies have been squeezed between a hostile regime and a strong shopper motion that boycotted firms seen as sympathetic to the generals.
Born in Wakema township, Ayeyarwady Area, Thein Tun was one of many first generations of Bamar entrepreneurs, after colonial rule led to 1948, to fill the void within the sectors of banking and actual property growth, however he additionally expanded by working with worldwide companies.
He was famously recognized within the Burmese enterprise neighborhood as “Pepsi Thein Tun” as his firm, Myanmar Golden Star (MGS), was ready to herald the American model in 1990.
He additionally arrange a charity beneath the identify Tun Basis which provided scholarships to youngsters from underprivileged households in addition to portray and literary awards.
Shut ties to the army
Analysts and businesspeople doubt Thein Tun was not from the crony capitalist class, regardless of the tycoon claiming he wasn’t a crony. Based on senior Burmese politicians, he loved shut ties to former lieutenant normal Tun Kyi, who was commerce minister beneath strongman Than Shwe’s junta, styled because the State Legislation and Order Restoration Council.
The Tun Basis additionally sponsored the publishing of a guide by Soe Thein, a former head of the navy who served as President Thein Sein’s minister for the president’s workplace between 2011 and 2016.
The guide, titled Myanmar’s transformation & U Thein Sein: An insider’s account, praised the actions of the previous president. Soe Thein went on to publish one other guide final yr which justified and supported the coup.
The tycoon was recognized to have two sons, Thant Zin Tun and Oo Oo Tun, and one daughter, Mar Mar Tun. Thant Zin Tun is vice-chairperson of MGS, whereas Oo Oo Tun manages the buying and selling subsidiary from Singapore.
Mar Mar Tun works together with her husband, Aung Moe Kyaw of IBTC Group, a beverage agency recognized for its native whiskey. Thein Tun’s two sons in addition to all three grandchildren have been educated within the west.
The grandchildren of their mid-20s work as junior executives on the household’s companies – Elizabeth Tun on the financial institution, Daniel Tun at Carlsberg Myanmar and Fiona Tun at Myanmar Instances. In addition they launched the Onerous Rock cafe in Yangon, which wasn’t profitable and wound up in 2019.
Fingers-on in enterprise
Thein Tun’s youngsters informed Forbes in 2018 that their grandfather was hands-on in his companies and monetary particulars. That makes him the exact opposite of different enterprise tycoons who’ve handed the reins to the following technology corresponding to Serge Pun & Affiliate, led by Serge Pun, and Shwe Taung, led by Aik Htun.
A company govt in Yangon who had intensive dealings with the magnate mentioned Thein Tun was “an old style crony” who gained riches however didn’t know learn how to develop his companies.
“I didn’t see any actual worth add he delivered to firms. He amassed belongings however didn’t do a lot to maneuver issues ahead. He appeared caught within the Nineteen Nineties. U Thein Tun was a tier-one crony in ’90s and 2000s. By the 2010s it was clear he had fallen to second tier,” he informed Asia Instances.
Thein Tun’s most well-known success story was bringing Pepsi into the Myanmar market. US beverage large PepsiCo entered a three way partnership with MGS, with the latter proudly owning 60%, to arrange a bottling plant with a 10-year-license to bottle and distribute merchandise beneath Pepsi together with Pepsi Cola, 7 Up and Miranda smooth drinks.
In 1997, PepsiCo determined to promote its 40% stake to MGS and depart the nation after sanctions by the US authorities on the Burmese junta.
The exit of Pepsi left Thein Tun the franchise and $15 million which might result in the launch of his personal smooth drinks manufacturers corresponding to Star Cola, Quench and Crusher, inexpensive to common Myanmar customers who not may afford worldwide drinks which needed to be imported.
“His companies weren’t progressive and even actually conscious of the modifications in society. Caught within the Nineteen Nineties – simply trying to amass land banks and push round clients, he didn’t understand in banking they may simply go elsewhere, purchase different drinks or fast-moving shopper items, and so forth,” the Yangon govt added, mentioning the truth that after the Pepsi success story, his different companies didn’t appear to meet up with Myanmar’s altering instances.
Pocketing Pepsi’s cash
In 2014, Thein Tun bought a 70% stake in his MGS firm to South Korea’s Lotte Chilsung Beverage, forming three way partnership Lotte-MGS Drinks, which has bottled Pepsi domestically because it ceased manufacturing in 1997.
Pepsi returned in 2012 and partnered with Mandalay-based Burmese-Chinese language conglomerate Capital Diamond Star Group, giving it the unique rights to import the American smooth drink.
Pepsi didn’t select Thein Tun after they got here again as a result of Pepsi, upon exiting in 1997, gave Thein Tun thousands and thousands in US {dollars} for native distributors. However Thein Tun took all the cash and didn’t go it on to the poor distributors, a transfer that angered the American beverage large, in response to an influential Burmese businessman.
One other main funding of Thein Tun’s was for MGS to associate with Danish brewery large Carlsberg in 2013, with Carlsberg holding a 51% stake.
“We all know MGS from earlier than and there’s a good relationship,” mentioned Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, then Carlsberg’s CEO through the occasion to unveil the partnership in Yangon on February 1, 2013.
Rasmussen’s optimism turned out to be utterly off the mark. It was well-known in Myanmar’s enterprise neighborhood that the three way partnership had been affected by an inner rivalry between the Carlsberg faction and Thein Tun’s loyalists. The 2 sides didn’t hit it off, mentioned a number of trade sources.
Asia Instances understands from a number of trade sources aware of the matter that Daniel Tun, Thein Tun’s grandson, was eliminated in 2020 as Carlsberg Myanmar’s deputy managing director due to “repeated and critical misconduct.” Carlsberg couldn’t be reached for remark by press time.
The tycoon additionally had business pursuits in resorts, actual property, agriculture, development and banking. Regardless of these ventures, his companies weren’t as well-liked as these of his rivals, because the tycoon did not catch as much as the altering instances.
Business insiders echoed the sentiment that Thein Tun’s model of operating firms was “very old fashioned.”
Tun Business Financial institution boasts of serving 40,000 clients, however the determine is tiny in contrast with different rivals corresponding to Yoma Financial institution, which has 690,000 shoppers, 17 instances extra.
A former senior Burmese editor at Myanmar Instances noticed that Thein Tun by no means understood why journalists have been vital to the every day operations of the newsroom in addition to the business mannequin of the newspaper.
“He failed to take a position and his individuals didn’t handle the newsroom correctly both. Thein Tun simply wished to run it like his different companies,” the previous Burmese-language version editor mentioned.
“As Myanmar has been remoted for many years, outdated cronies fail to grasp how completely different the world has modified every single day from the time they first grew to become wealthy. They solely learn about property and money.”
“Amid Myanmar’s disaster, Burmese media proprietors should prioritize the ethics and independence of reports reporting and defend the protection of their very own journalists. Myanmar wants unbiased {and professional} journalism now greater than ever,” mentioned activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi.
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