Yoma Strategic to restructure debt for suspended Myanmar project

YOMA Strategic and its partners on Tuesday (Mar 14) said they have agreed to restructure the debt facilities for a city-quarter project, Yoma Central, which is located in downtown Yangon.

The developer, Meeyahta Development Limited (MDL), is made up of a consortium of companies led by major shareholder, Yoma Strategic.

The other companies involved in the initiative are MMJ Yangon Development (MMJYD), First Myanmar Investment Public Company, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Both IFC and ADB, who are also lenders to MDL, have agreed to grant the latter a standstill period until Jun 15, 2025.

During this period, the lenders will not act against MDL in the event of any default arising from termination of agreements and if the developer is not able to obtain relevant foreign exchange approvals to transfer funds out of Myanmar as payment for the loans.

Additionally, MMJYD has also agreed to contribute additional shareholder loans to the developer group. These proceeds would partly be used to repay and prepay the instalments of the principal loan amount due from mid June 2021 to mid December 2024, said Yoma.

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“The remaining funds from the MMJYD funding may be applied towards the payment of any other amounts due under the loan and any other costs or expenses incurred by MDL subject to the lenders’ approval,” it added.

For context, construction of the Yoma Central project was earlier halted in mid-2021 due to the uncertain economic environment.

MDL is expected to restart the project shortly with a view to reducing the project’s overall development cost, though this is subject to the approval of the revised development plan by the relevant stakeholders, said Yoma.

Shares in Yoma Strategic ended Monday down S$0.004, or 3.9 per cent, to S$0.099.