PETRONAS eyes US$1 bln petchem sale to Vinythai
The likely tie-up is aimed at creating economies of scale needed to protect petrochemical margins that have been pinched by rising feedstock cost due to sharply higher oil prices.
"Basically, what would happen is Vinythai, the public company, would issue equity to Petronas in exchange for the assets," said a source, adding that Petronas could end up with around one-third of the listed company following the deal.
Vinythai is controlled by Belgian drugs and chemicals company Solvay .
But the sources said the plan might not materialise as it would depend on the result of a valuation report on the equity portion of the two petrochemical plants -- Vinyl Chloride (M) Sdn Bhd in northeast Malaysia and Phu My Plastics & Chemical Company Ltd. in Vietnam.
A Petronas spokesman declined to comment, while Vinythai was not available for comment on Thursday, a public holiday in Thailand.
Shares in Vinythai last traded at 9.75 baht ($0.26) apiece, hardly changed over the past six months, but were down 15 percent from a year ago.
The Malaysian plant, which is wholly owned by Petronas following stake sales by partners including Japanese trading house Mitsui several years ago, came onstream in 2000 and has an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).
VCM is used as feedstock in the manufacture of PVC, a raw material for pipes, fittings and consumer wares.
Phu My Plastics, in which Petronas increased its stake to 50 percent in 2000 following the withdrawal of Japanese trading house Marubeni , started operations in 2002 and has an annual PVC production capacity of 100,000 tonnes.
Other partners in the Vietnamese plant, which imports feedstock from the Malaysian facility, are PetroVietnam Gas Co. and Tramatsuco, the trading arm of the People's Committee of Baria-Vung Tau Province.
Petronas is considering selling two of its petrochemical plants, including one in Vietnam, to Vinythai PCL in return for a stake in the Thai-listed firm, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Under the plan, Thailand's second-largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) maker would issue shares to the Malaysia state oil giant for the plants carrying an estimated enterprise value of more than US$1 billion, the sources said.
The likely tie-up is aimed at creating economies of scale needed to protect petrochemical margins that have been pinched by rising feedstock cost due to sharply higher oil prices.
"Basically, what would happen is Vinythai, the public company, would issue equity to Petronas in exchange for the assets," said a source, adding that Petronas could end up with around one-third of the listed company following the deal.
Vinythai is controlled by Belgian drugs and chemicals company Solvay .
But the sources said the plan might not materialise as it would depend on the result of a valuation report on the equity portion of the two petrochemical plants -- Vinyl Chloride (M) Sdn Bhd in northeast Malaysia and Phu My Plastics & Chemical Company Ltd. in Vietnam.
A Petronas spokesman declined to comment, while Vinythai was not available for comment on Thursday, a public holiday in Thailand.
Shares in Vinythai last traded at 9.75 baht ($0.26) apiece, hardly changed over the past six months, but were down 15 percent from a year ago.
The Malaysian plant, which is wholly owned by Petronas following stake sales by partners including Japanese trading house Mitsui several years ago, came onstream in 2000 and has an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).
VCM is used as feedstock in the manufacture of PVC, a raw material for pipes, fittings and consumer wares.
Phu My Plastics, in which Petronas increased its stake to 50 percent in 2000 following the withdrawal of Japanese trading house Marubeni , started operations in 2002 and has an annual PVC production capacity of 100,000 tonnes.
Other partners in the Vietnamese plant, which imports feedstock from the Malaysian facility, are PetroVietnam Gas Co. and Tramatsuco, the trading arm of the People's Committee of Baria-Vung Tau Province.
posted by Publisher @ 5:50 AM
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