Myanmar has no dearth of deals for PEs, but our interest is at SME level: Genevieve Heng, Anthem Asia

A host of foreign firms are seeking to leverage on the growth of Myanmar’s economy, and this trend has been further strengthened by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently pledging US$1.75 billion in loans to Myanmar over 5 years from 2017, even as political and economic reforms designed to support such growth make headlines worldwide. While the country has no shortage of deals, especially in the infrastructure space, investment group Anthem Asia, is only looking at the SMEs, its director & co-founder Genevieve Heng said in an interaction. Heng, who previously worked for a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, and also served as a managing director (growth & expansion capital) for CLSA Capital Partners in Singapore, cautioned that if new PE players with little understanding of frontier markets like Myanmar, were to wave larger cheque books around, it could lead to unsustainable valuations, distorting the market.