The Kanbawza Group of Companies ( my, ကမ္ဘောဇကုမ္ပဏီအုပ်စု; abbreviated as KBZ) is a set of Myanmar-based companies across industries such as construction, garments, insurance, banking, oil, communications, cement, aviation and mining that bear the KBZ brand. Each company operates as separate independent entities.

History

The first KBZ ventures were founded in 1988 by U Aung Ko Win in textile trading and mining. This subsequently expanded into the finance, agriculture, aviation, manufacturing, and tourism sectors.

Aung Ko Win Tharay Sithu Aung Ko Win ( my, အောင်ကိုဝင်း; also known as Saya Kyaung) is a Burmese business tycoon and former school teacher. He owns several businesses in Myanmar under the Kanbawza (KBZ) brand in the finance, agricu ...

(also known as Saya Kyaung) is a former schoolteacher with close connections to General

Maung Aye Vice Senior General Maung Aye ( my, မောင်အေး ; born 25 December 1937) is a Burmese military official who was Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling military junta of Myanmar, from July 1993 to ...

, the former second in command of the former military junta, the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

(SPDC). He is married to Nan Than Htwe, the niece of Win Myint, a former SPDC official. In January 2000, Kanbawza was awarded a banking license to operate

Kanbawza Bank Kanbawza Bank ( my, ကမ္ဘောဇဘဏ်; abbreviated as KBZ Bank) is a private commercial bank in Myanmar. The bank was established on 1 July 1994 in Taunggyi, Shan State. KBZ Bank shares the same brand as a number of companies in Myanma ...

, which was first established in

Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth lar ...

as an independent business. In 2017, daughters

Nang Lang Kham Nang Lang Kham ( my, နန်းလိုင်ခမ်း; born 1 June 1988) is a Burmese businesswoman and philanthropist. She is a Deputy CEO of Kanbawza Bank, and the executive director of the Kanbawza Group, a major business conglomerate ...

and Nang Kham Noung stepped assumed leadership positions in Kanbawza, playing an active management role as Deputy CEOs in

KBZ Bank Kanbawza Bank ( my, ကမ္ဘောဇဘဏ်; abbreviated as KBZ Bank) is a private commercial bank in Myanmar. The bank was established on 1 July 1994 in Taunggyi, Shan State. KBZ Bank shares the same brand as a number of companies in Myanma ...

Controversy

In 2017, the

Burmese military Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

launched a fundraising campaign to fund "clearance operations" in northern Rakhine State, as part of the broader

Rohingya conflict The Rohingya conflict is an ongoing conflict in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan), characterised by sectarian violence between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities, a military crackdown ...

. In response, KBZ Group's Brighter Future Foundation donated over 3.469 billion kyats (approximately US$2.48 million) to the armed forces.

Companies bearing the 'Kanbawza' brand

KBZ Life Insurance

KBZ MS General Insurance

References

{{reflist Conglomerate companies of Myanmar Holding companies established in 1994 1994 establishments in Myanmar