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Bloomberg
Thousands of tourists have floated in a hot-air balloon over Myanmar’s historic Bagan plains dotted with more than 2,200 ancient Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries. Chances are they rode one of Memories Group Ltd.’s inflatables.
The company, the largest operator of balloons in the area, rose 48 percent above its placement price in its debut session on the Singapore stock exchange. Memories Group is a 47.6 percent-owned unit of Burmese conglomerate Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd., which spun off its Myanmar tourism assets via a reverse takeover of SHC Capital Asia.
The company raised
S$10.7 million in a placement of 42.6 million new shares and 7.4 million vendor shares at S$0.25 per piece, which ended on January 3. The stock trades under the MEGL ticker, and closed at 37 Singapore cents.
“Tourism is one of the lowest hanging fruits that will have exponential growth and we felt it was the right time to actually have an independent, dedicated platform to develop the tourism business,†Serge Pun, founder of Yoma Strategic and executive chairman in both companies, said. His son, Melvyn Pun, an investment banker, is the CEO of Yoma.
At $450 a person, a hot-air balloon ride is worth about a third of Myanmar’s gross domestic product per capita in 2016. International tourist spending in the country is estimated to reach $5.2 billion in 2027, more than double the $2.3 billion spent in 2016, according to a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council. More than 22,000 visitors rode on Memories Group’s balloons last fiscal year, Pun said.
Memories Group is targeting high-end tourists with hotels and services and intends to acquire more tourism-related businesses with the proceeds of its placement, Pun said.