M1 Group

M1 Group

Company type	Private
Industry	Finance, investment
Founded	2007; 18 years ago (2007)
Founder	Taha Mikati Najib Mikati
Headquarters	Beirut, Lebanon
Key people	Azmi Mikati (CEO)
Website	www.m1group.com

M1 Group is a diversified investment holdings group based in Beirut, Lebanon. Its CEO is Azmi Mikati.[1]

History

In 2007, the Mikati brothers founded M1 Group, which now comprises:

• M1 Real Estate which owns real estate in Europe, the United States and the Middle East[2]
• M1 Fashion which owns several clothing brands including Façonnable, Pepe jeans and Hackett London[3][4]

Myanmar

According to a UN-report from 2019, Irrawaddy Green Towers has business interest with the Myanmar military through Mytel,[5] M1 Group, is one of the shareholders along with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Irrawaddy Green Towers. The Burma Campaign UK placed M1 Group, along with Google, Apple and many other international companies on their "dirty list", M1 was placed due to being "a major shareholder in Irrawaddy Green Towers, a mobile phone tower company which works for the military joint venture Mytel."[6][7]

After the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, the Military junta told telecom companies in Myanmar that "they had until Monday July 5 to fully implement intercept technology they had previously been asked to install to let authorities spy on calls, messages and web traffic and to track users by themselves".[8] Under these circumstances Telenor found it impossible to stay in the country, and proposed to sell its Myanmar business to the M1 group for $105 million.[9]

References

1. "M1 Group". Mbendi.com. 25 October 2015. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
2. Lebanese investors buy Credit Suisse’s Canary Wharf office, Property Week, published 7 August 2009, retrieved 7 July 2011
3. (in French) Façonnable rachetée par M1 Group, Franchise Magazine.com, published 27 July 2007, retrieved 15 July 2011
4. "Pepe Jeans passes to M1 Group and L Capital Asia". Sportswearnet.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
5. The economic interests of the Myanmar military, Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar
6. The Dirty List, March 2021, Burma Campaign UK
7. About the company M1 Group, Added to the Dirty List 20 August 2019, Burma Campaign UK
8. After pressuring telecom firms, Myanmar's junta bans executives from leaving, Fanny Potkin, July 5, 2021, reuters
9. Telenor quits Myanmar with $105 mln sale to Lebanon's M1 Group, Victoria Klesty, July 8, 2021, reuters