The story of Serge Pun: Myanmar’s 2016 Real Estate Personality

Born in Yangon, Serge Pun spent his formative years in China during the Cultural Revolution and arrived in Hong Kong at the age of 21.

He started his career as a salesman at a Hong Kong‐based real estate firm where he worked for 10 years. In 1983, he went on to establish his business conglomerate in Hong Kong, and in 1991 he returned to his birth country, Myanmar, to establish one of the country’s largest and leading corporations.

Today Pun is the executive chairman of the SPA Group of Companies, which currently operates 40 companies that are active in eight business sectors, including banking and financial services, automotive, agriculture and logistics, luxury travel and tourism, consumer services, aviation, healthcare, and real estate development.

SPA’s flagship First Myanmar Investment Co Ltd one of the first public companies in Myanmar, was established in 1992. In 2006, Pun led the company’s real estate arm Yoma Strategic Holdings to a successful listing on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange.

As a real estate entrepreneur, one of Pun’s biggest and most significant projects in Myanmar is the acclaimed Star City, which won the Best Landscape Architectural Design award plus two other Highly Commended honours at the inaugural Myanmar Property Awards 2015.

Yoma is once again nominated for the Myanmar Property Awards 2016, this time in the Best Condo Development and Best Housing Development categories.

On top of the nominations for Yoma, Pun has been chosen by the editors of Property Report, Asia’s leading luxury real estate, architecture and design magazine, to become the recipient of the prestigious Real Estate Personality of the Year award for his exemplary leadership and contributions to the domestic real estate sector.

“I hope this recognition would be the emphatic for us to produce better products to serve customers in the future,” Pun told Property Report. “Based on the disparity of supply and demand, I think the Myanmar real estate sector will be continue to be strong in the foreseeable future.”

The Real Estate Personality of the Year gong will add to Pun’s mantle of honours, which includes being selected as one of the 65 outstanding Overseas Chinese Model worldwide to feature on a series of commemorative postage stamp celebrating the 65th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Pun was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration by the Southern California University in 1999.

A frequently invited to be a speaker in international forums on Myanmar and ASEAN, Pun is currently a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Transparency and Anti‐Corruption, a standing member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Dalian, and a member of the Asia Business Council.

Pun currently resides in Yangon with his wife and four sons.

Celebrate Serge Pun’s real estate achievements at the Myanmar Property Awards 2016, an exclusive event presented by Samsung and organised by PropertyGuru, Asia’s leading online property group, on 30 June at the Sule Shangri-la Yangon. For tickets, visit the official website or email [email protected].