Myanmar's new stock market to open in Oct 2015

YANGON (June 4): A stock exchange being developed in Myanmar with Japanese help should open in the commercial capital of Yangon in October 2015 with a bank and an industrial estate operator among the first companies likely to list, a deputy minister said on Wednesday.

Daiwa Securities Group and the Tokyo Stock Exchange signed an agreement in May 2012 to help set up the exchange after Myanmar started to open up the previous year following almost half a century of military rule.

"Necessary arrangements have been well under way to open a stock market with a few qualified public companies in Yangon in October 2015," Deputy Finance Minister Maung Maung Thein, who chairs the exchange's preparation committee, told Reuters.

He said half a dozen companies would be listed in the early stages, including Myanma Agro-business Public Co (MAPCO) and Asia Green Development Bank (AGDB).

"Now Daiwa Institute of Research from Japan is helping them prepare systematically for listing after signing agreements with these companies, while a few more public companies including Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public Ltd are expected to follow suit soon," he added.

The Thilawa economic zone outside Yangon is still being developed. An industrial estate is expected to open in mid-2015 and the zone should eventually have a port, a power plant and waste water treatment plants.

AGDB opened its first branch in August 2010 in the capital, Naypyitaw, and it now has 48 around the country, according to its website.

Ye Min Aung, managing director of MAPCO, confirmed his company's interest in listing.

"Daiwa is now helping us to be in line with the standards and practices of international public companies," he said.

The new stock exchange will be located in a former central bank building on the corner of Merchant Street and Sule Pagoda Road in the centre of Yangon.

Myanmar already has an over-the-counter bourse, the Myanmar Securities Exchange Center (MSEC), but it has only two listed firms.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/06/05/myanmars-new-stock-market-to-open-in-oct-2015/