Progress Report Regarding Kirin's Operations in Myanmar
- Other
June 5, 2020
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
On 6 February 2020, Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (President and CEO: Yoshinori Isozaki) announced a strategic review of its operations in Myanmar, and requested necessary detail of the financial and governance structures of our business partner in the region, Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (“MEHL”). Kirin has made repeated requests to MEHL for proper documentation as the information initially provided was insufficient. Unfortunately, we have not received further updates or documentation from MEHL on this matter.
Kirin today announces that it has appointed Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC(“Deloitte”) to conduct an independent review of MEHL’s financial and governance structures to determine the destination of proceeds from the joint-venture businesses Myanmar Brewery Limited and Mandalay Brewery Limited as a matter of urgency. In parallel, Kirin is exploring alternative structural options for the ownership of the Myanmar joint-ventures as part of a review of the business relationship with MEHL. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose further significant challenges to advancing this process swiftly, we are making every effort to address the issue as quickly as possible.
At Kirin, respect for human rights is fundamental to all of our business activities and we remain committed to ensuring that our operations are in line with the Kirin Group Human Rights Policy.
We appreciate the challenges of operating in frontier markets and are constantly working to deepen our understanding of the many complexities and improve our systems. It is our view that one of our roles in business is to encourage alignment with global best practice and corporate governance standards.
Kirin takes its responsibilities in Myanmar seriously and will take necessary action to ensure our business activities in the region adhere to the highest standards. A further update on our position and the review conducted by Deloitte will be provided in due course.