5/22/22, 4:28 PM Telenor sale to military-linked consortium to be complete in mid-February | Myanmar NOW Myanmar DICA’s record on Shwe Byain Phyu Telecom Co., Ltd Myanmar Now asked Telenor to disclose the beneficial owners of Investcom Myanmar, as well as to provide clarity on which legal entity Telenor is selling their Myanmar company to, and whether they are concerned about the involvement of a company registered in the Cayman Islands. “Telenor is waiting for regulatory approval of the sale of Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group,” Telenor communications director Cathrine Stang Lund said. Established in 1982 by M1 Group’s owners, Investcom is also the name of M1’s telecommunications business which was sold to the South African telecoms firm MTN in 2006 for $5.5b. M1 has a controversial history of business with brutal regimes and its investment in Myanmar’s military-linked telecoms tower company Irrawaddy Green Towers. Shwe Byain Phyu, serving the generals Established in 2000, Shwe Byain Phyu is a group of companies with interests in gem mining, petrol, logistics, and manufacturing. With nine subsidiaries under the group, it has a long history of serving the military-owned Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), better known as U Paing in Burmese, since the 2000s. The company lists the Naypyitaw gems and jewellery market as its principal place of business. According to a previously published interview with its chairman in FWP Research—a Japanese-affiliated research firm in Myanmar—Shwe Byain Phyu imported petroleum under the name of MEHL at that time. The agreement was that the profits would be shared between both parties, the report said. The Shwe Byain Phyu Group is owned and founded by 59-year-old Thein Win Zaw. He established a company called Manaw Thidar in 1996 under the rule of former dictator Than Shwe which later became a subsidiary under Shwe Byain Phyu. Corporate data shows that Thein Win Zaw is also a director of Mahar Yoma Public Company, part of a consortium that also has a stake in the military-owned telecoms https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/telenor-sale-to-military-linked-consortium-to-be-complete-in-mid-february 5/18