Thailand’s Siam Cement to allocate US$6 bln to strenghten presence in Vietnam

10-Mar-16

Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) is planning to allocate as much as US$6 bln to strengthen its presence in the Vietnamese plastics and packaging industry, according to a Vietnamnet report. The company plans to garner a substantial share of the local industry by 2020, experts reportedly disclosed at the 2016 Vietnam Plastics and Rubber Exhibition. Given the proximity of Vietnam to Thailand, along with the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community earlier this year, it just makes good sense for SCG to expand in Vietnam’s plastics market. SCG has been aggressively beefing up its presence in the Vietnamese plastics industry, with the latest US$44.4 mln acquisition of an 80% stake in Tin Thanh Packing JSC in July 2015. It is also the largest purchase within the industry to date. The Thai conglomerate had earlier purchased minority stakes of two other leading Vietnamese plastic firms, Tien Phong JSC (23.84%) and Binh Minh JSC (20.4%). The report also stated that the deals were attached with future buy options, which left “the door wide open” for future purchases.