FIRST Myanmar Investment, a publicly listed company, has announced plans to establish a new FMI-dedicated share-trading centre in Yangon.

The plans call for the centre to be established on a ground floor premises on Pyay Road in Sanchaung township, near Yoma Bank’s Myaynigone branch and Dagon Centre.

“For many years now, despite the fact that we have an efficient trading centre at our headquarters, the number of shares available for trading has been very limited,” FMI chairman Mr Serge Pun said at the company’s 13th annual general meeting late last month.

The inconvenient location of the original trading centre, on the 10th floor of the FMI Centre on Bogyoke Aung San Road in downtown Yangon, had also hindered trading, he said.

The new centre will offer trading via 10 brokers specialised in trading FMI shares and who have been issued broker licences by the company, making it Myanmar’s first registered brokering service, Mr Pun said.

The company had spent considerable time and effort engineering a safe and effective means of trading its securities, he said. Brokers must show they have at least K3 million of their own money and are required to pay a K5 million bond to FMI.

FMI has so far issued five broker licences and “it is expected the centre will commence operation by the end of the year”, he added.

Mr Pun was cautiously optimistic about the change.

“Being a pioneer system, we expect to experience some labour pains and ripples in the first few months but remain confident it will become a highly successful endeavour in due course,” he said.

In order to ensure the fluid flow of trading, FMI also plans to reorganise the company’s share structure in a share-splitting exercise.

“Our existing share capital will be split into tenths; meaning that each existing share of K10,000 will be spilt into 10 shares, each share then having a K1000 value,” Mr Pun explained. “Correspondingly, the market value of existing shares will be spilt into tenths.”

With a smaller per share value, it will be easier for a wider range of investors and traders to participate in the company and bring about a healthy volume of trading of FMI shares.

The two measures were designed to offer a more professional investment environment and greater liquidity in trading, Mr Pun said.

Rubber plantation

Also at the general meeting Mr Pun announced plans for FMI to enter into a new investment project in agriculture.

“We have established an agriculture division within the group to capitalise on the vast opportunities offered in the production and sales of agricultural products,” he said.

He said it would contribute to the country’s national development policies.
Mr Pun said the new venture’s initial focus would be on developing a sizable rubber plantation, which it would expand in size to 100,000 acres in the next five to seven years.

“Negotiations with government officials are about to be finalised on the cultivation of rubber on 6000 acres in Bago Division,” he said. “In the coming months, we will continue to grow more rubber in Tanintharyi Division and Rakhine State. Our target is to become a major player in the plantation industry.”

The rubber plantation is a 50-50 joint venture between FMI and Serge Pun and Associates (Myanmar) Limited, said Mr Pun, adding that the produce would be sold on the domestic and international markets.

Further investments in downstream industries associated with the rubber it produces are also envisaged in the future, he said.

“We believe that this strategic move into agro-based industry will provide the company with a stable income for years to come and will propel us into the international arena of resource-based trading,” Mr Pun said.

FMI comprises 15 diversified businesses in Myanmar involving construction, banking, services and manufacturing.