Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd (YOMA), a property development and management group with the majority of its assets in Myanmar, has posted its sharpest rise in almost four months in Singapore trading, buoyed by optimism on earnings and development prospects in Myanmar.
Yoma rose 18 percent to close 45 cents yesterday, recording the biggest gain since February this year.
“They just reported good profit, their apartments in Myanmar are selling well, plus the market sentiment is a bit better today,” said a local trader.
According to a media report, the group may benefit from the 64 million people as well as large deposits of natural gas and lumber, as the country reconnects with the global economy after decades of isolation under military rule.
“Property is a very attractive business to be in, in an emerging, frontier market like this,” said Andrew Rickards, Chief Executive of Yoma, in an interview with Bloomberg.
He noted that property tends to be “one of the areas that goes up first as people get increasing wealth, the first thing they want to do is buy a property”.
Analyst Bernard Chin said that Myanmar’s regulatory conditions were also favourable for the country.
“Since our last update, the US had confirmed that they would be suspending sanctions on investment across all sectors of the Myanmar economy,” he noted.
“In addition, there was an overhaul of the complex Myanmar currency system (kyat). Both these key events will simplify and further ease the process of investing in the country, potentially benefiting Yoma’s key market segment – real estate.”
Yoma has been increasing its investment in Myanmar, and profit has more than doubled to S$6 million in the year ended 31 March 2012. It also received shareholder approval to acquire a 70 percent stake in the Star City development in Yangon. This involves the construction of 9,000 homes as well as commercial and retail developments.
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