Family & Life Magazine Issue 11 | Page 8

We took it as a challenge and we were not going to give up!, thunders Pun. He set out to revolutionise the remittance system, using satellite communications so that he could give his customers the option to remit money to even the remotest areas. In a conversation with Tony Ong, Chairman of Northern Mining Limited, someone who knows Myanmar and Pun well, says: “Myanmar is still a fairly closed market with a relatively small number of prominent players. Unfortunately, sometimes, diplomats and foreign investors rely on a grapevine that comprises a very small circle of people for commercial intelligence. Depending on who you listen to, this grapevine may be inaccurate that it may cause lost opportunities. Worst still is when one relies on misinformation that is tainted by old biases under the old regime”. “So should one believe this misinformation, or the number of successful global players and conglomerates that are convincingly looking to partner with Pun? Surely their assessment must carry more weight. We all know that the due diligence process undertaken by multilaterals and global MNCs are very rigorous to say the least.” Recently too, a Thomson Reuters Foundation article highlighted the efforts of a few activists who are urging IFC, the financing arm of the World Bank to reconsider a $30 million loan to Yoma Bank, owned by Pun. The article references a supposed US embassy cable released by Wikileaks six years ago that recommended that Pun be subjected to US financial sanctions, alongside other known cronies of the regime. That alleged recommendation was never applied on Pun. Pun speculates that the activists’ main target might be at something far bigger than him personally. He remains unperturbed by the allegations, saying “I know what I have done in the past and what I am doing today, and I am totally at peace with my actions.” There are no skeletons hiding in his metaphorical closet. Businessmen who know Pun laughed off the suggestions that Pun might be a crony of the regime. Caterpillar’s Khin Maung Win finds the accusations absurd and says that Pun “would be the last person in the world to qualify as a crony”. Khin continues with a chuckle: “Pun doesn’t really socialise well with government officials.” In fact, Pun’s pursuit of transparency occasionally steered him and his then-burgeoning businesses towards danger. He recalls how his refusal to “play ball” in the past meant that he constantly had to deal with the possible threat of the junta taking over or closing his businesses down. The man, however, does not bow down easily and had planned for that possibility. If his businesses were to fall into the hands of the regime, he wanted the ownership of his companies to be distributed among his employees. “I want to see them try to take the business from them!” BACK AGAINST THE WALL Dramatic? Yes. But Pun is a fighter and when you back him into a corner, he comes out swinging. For the best demonstration of this incredible tenacity, you only need to look back a decade ago. In 2003, during a financial crisis The Economist cleverly dubbed the Kyatastrophe, Pun openly disagreed with the decisions made by the general who was handling the fiasco. He thought the actions the general was taking would lead Myanmar to irrecoverable financial ruin. Pun was right and Myanmar plunged into an economic abyss. Two of the largest private banks were shut down and rumourmongers were speculating that Pun’s Yoma Bank was next. The knock on the door did come but the messengers bore different news. Pun could keep his banking licence but was not allowed to take in deposits or give out loans, the main bread and butter of any bank. Instead, his bank could only carry out domestic remittance services. To any other bank, such a move would have marked the beginning of the end. Pun, as expected, came out swinging. “We took it as a challenge and we were not going to give up!” thunders Pun. He set out to revolutionise the remittance system, using satellite communications so that he could give his customers the option to remit money to even the remotest areas. He shortened the waiting period for remitted money to reach the intended receiver to an amazing 10 minutes. He motivated his branch managers to be customer focused and treat it as a fight for survival. They did not let him down. With the largest branch network in the country then and the unrivalled zeal to survive on just remittance fees, Yoma Bank captured the bulk of the domestic remittance market. “The volume of the remittance business that we were doing amazed even myself.” Looking back, Pun reckons the strange decision by the powers to let him keep his banking licence but disallowing him to do any banking business, was a calculated move to make him bleed enough so that he would surrender. “They disallowed us to take deposits or make loans but insisted that every of our 41 branches remain open without any layoffs.” Pun recalls. Pun’s admission of defeat would have been a Pyrrhic victory for the generals, but a victory nonetheless. Pun would have none of that. Finally, in 2012, under the new government, Pun’s banking licence was fully reinstated. Shortly thereafter, allegations of Pun’s links to the regime surfaced, mainly because Yoma Bank was conspicuously missing from the list of top 100 corporate taxpayers issued by the country’s taxation department, while other smaller banks were included. Balloons over Bogan, a luxury tourism business of Yoma Strategic Holdings 8 Family & Life • Aug 2014 “How do you expect Yoma Bank to be on the top taxpayers’ list in 2013 when our full banking licence was only reinstated in November 2012? We were simply not able to comp