Japanese beverage giant Kirin will conduct its own audit of Myanmar Military-backed business partner Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) after it failed to fulfill a request for details about its finances and governance. Kirin said that it has appointed London-based Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC to conduct an independent review of MEHL’s “financial and governance structures to determine the destination of proceeds from the joint-venture businesses Myanmar Brewery Limited and Mandalay Brewery Limited as a matter of urgency.”
With MEHL, Kirin shares a stake in Myanmar Brewery, the country’s largest beverage company and maker of Myanmar Beer. Kirin began to review its partnership with MEHL—which is owned by current and former military officials—early this year. In February, it “requested necessary detail of the financial and governance structures of our business partner in the region,” the company said in a statement. “Kirin has made repeated requests to MEHL for proper documentation as the information initially provided was insufficient. Unfortunately, we have not received further updates or documentation from MEHL on this matter,” Kirin said.
The audit comes after years of criticism from human rights organizations which claim the partnership funds human rights abuses in Rakhine State. Critics are quick to point out several cash donations Kirin made to the Army (Tatmadaw) in 2017, the same year the military’s controversial clearance operations displaced hundreds of thousands of Rakhine Muslims. Kirin faced fresh backlash last year, when the United Nations’ Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar called for a global boycott of all Tatmadaw-linked business. The controversy began to threaten other Kirin deals, including the acquisition of American beer maker New Belgium, which was condemned by American-based organizations representing Myanmar ethnic minorities.
