Japanese beverage giant Kirin Holdings Co said yesterday that it has decided to withdraw from its joint venture in Myanmar.
Kirin, owner of the San Miguel, Fat Tire and Lion brands, said that its board made the decision to “urgently terminate” the partnership with Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL), a military-affiliated company, after finding that it would be difficult to quickly end the venture in the way Kirin wanted to.
The company said more than a year ago that it was unhappy with a military takeover on Feb. 1 last year, which violated its corporate standards and human rights policy.
The military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering mass nonviolent protests nationwide. When the military and police responded with deadly force, armed resistance arose in cities and the countryside in a fierce struggle for power.
However, Kirin had been trying to keep its beer business in the country and get MEHL to sell its stake, saying it wanted to support its employees and help the country. Now, Kirin intends to sell its 51 percent stake, but not to MEHL, the brewery said.
Earlier, the company sought commercial arbitration in a dispute with MEHL over its plan to unwind the joint venture. MEHL had petitioned for liquidation of the venture, which Kirin said violated the joint venture agreement and was an “unjustified motion.”
A court recently ruled against MEHL’s petition, citing a technicality.
Myanmar Brewery, founded in 1995, produces beers under the Myanmar, Kirin Ichiban, Andaman Gold and Black Shield brand names.
It was unclear if the brewery would continue to make Kirin Ichiban after the venture ends.
Kirin said that it was recording an impairment loss last year on its business in Myanmar of ￥68 billion (US$589.73 million).
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS