Giving up Wall St career for family firm in Myanmar
Bold venture has become an unlikely success story in South-East Asia’s poorest country
It’s an extremely exciting opportunity. Intellectually it’s very challenging, stimulating, but also we’re impacting real lives MELVYN PUN Yoma Strategic Holdings CEO
When Melvyn Pun agreed to take his former boss to Myanmar in 2012, little did he know that the trip would cause him to quit his high-profile job at Goldman Sachs Group.
Melvyn had wanted to stay as head of corporate sales for Asia excluding Japan at Goldman, rather than join his father Serge’s empire – a sprawling conglomerate that runs businesses from real estate to the KFC chicken franchise in South East Asia’s poorest nation. But after three days of looking at the investment opportunities in Myanmar, the excitement of his former boss convinced him to go into the family business.
“I was a happy investment banker at Goldman Sachs for 12 years,” said Melvyn, now the chief executive of Yoma Strategic Holdings. “But the last five years have proved me wrong and I probably should’ve done it a bit earlier.”
The IMF, for one, is positive about the country’s prospects. In a November report, the IMF said Myanmar is “rebounding” thanks to a pick-up in agriculture and exports. The fund projects 6.7 per cent growth this fiscal year, up from 5.9 per cent the year before. That is one of the fastest paces in South East Asia.
Yoma Strategic is one of three publicly listed companies that have grown out of a business founded by the elder Pun in 1983, which is now one of the largest conglomerates in Myanmar. Yoma was listed on the Singapore Exchange in 2006. The second, First Myanmar Investment Company, was the Yangon Stock Exchange’s inaugural listing in March 2016. Yoma spun off its Myanmar tourism assets this month.
Melvyn took the reins from his father in 2015. He aims to triple Yoma’s market value within five years to at least USS$3 billion by expanding each of the consumer, automotive and real estate units into S$1bn (Dh2.77bn) businesses.
For some global investors, the Myanmar investment opportunity that the Pun family story highlights is being overshadowed by the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced amid condemnation from world leaders. For locals like the Puns, even though they’re sympathetic, business must go on.
It’s “very unfortunate,” Melvyn said. But “there’s negative international sentiment that may discourage international companies from coming in and competing too aggressively,” and the government is pushing harder to boost growth, he said.
The 39-year-old’s life could not have been more different from his father’s. Serge was the son of a Chinese banker who was forced to take his family from Myanmar in the 1960s when the country became less welcoming to foreigners after a military coup. They moved to China, and later Serge went to live in Hong Kong with almost no money. He started as a door-to-door salesman and eventually built a real estate empire. Today, his shareholdings in Yoma alone are worth more than S$300 million.
Melvyn grew up in Hong Kong, studied engineering at Cambridge University in the UK, and took a job at Goldman Sachs in 2000. These days, he divides his time between Hong Kong, Singapore and Myanmar.
“I never pushed,” Serge said. “When I told Melvyn in 2011 – I had heart problems – and I said, if you want to come back, this is the right time, and he said: ‘I’ve thought about it, Dad, I don’t think I’m coming back.”’
Seven years and a life-changing decision later, Melvyn says he is most excited about the consumer business. Yoma bought the KFC franchise in 2014 and now has 21 restaurants.
Melvyn plans to open more eateries to serve the country’s large youth demographic. They tend to live with their parents and can spend “more than 50 per cent of their income” on food, he said.
Yoma got most of its operating income from its property business in the fiscal year ended March 2017, while the food and automotive units made operating losses, according to Bloomberg data.
But the younger Pun is unfazed, an aspect of his personality that his father says is one of the reasons he picked him .
“It’s an extremely exciting opportunity,” the younger Pun said. “Intellectually it’s very challenging, stimulating, but also we’re impacting real lives.”