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Myanmar held the first session of its new parliament this week, its first democratically elected legislature in over 50 years. The country is also preparing for a similarly rare event in its capital markets, with regulators set to name the first company to be allowed to float on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX). Jonathan Breen reports.
The YSX officially opened last December, but it has so far sat idle. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) will change that at the start of trading in March when it reveals the name of the first company that will be able to sell shares on the YSX, according to state run newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.
There are six companies in the running: First Private Bank, First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Great Hor Kham, Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation (Mapco), Myanmar Citizens Bank and Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings.
The companies vying to trade on the stock market were instructed to compete with each other and "they'll have finished their target by the last week of February," SECM chairperson Maung Maung Thein told the Mayanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry on January 24.
FMI has been pegged as the frontrunner, sources in Myanmar told GlobalCapital Asia. It is one of the country's largest conglomerates and is involved in many sectors, including transportation, real estate, banking and agriculture.
Some of the contenders have been operating as public companies with wide shareholder bases for many years, according to Myanmar-based capital markets research and consulting firm Thura Swiss. For such companies, whose stocks have been trading on an over-the-counter (OTC) basis for years, listing will be easier.
Stock trading can be done via the Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre, an OTC market. But the YSX is the first modern...