MRC) -- SCG Chemicals Pcl, a unit of Siam Cement Pcl, is seeking to raise as much as USD3 billion in what could be Thailand's largest ever initial public offering (IPO), said Bangkokpost.
The group submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval the proposed listing of up to 3.85bn shares of SCG Chemicals on 27 April. The shares represent 25.2% of SCG Chemicals, which accounted for about 45% and 40% of SCG group’s first-quarter 2022 sales and profit, respectively.
First-quarter profitability in chemicals slumped due to squeezed margins as feedstock naphtha prices spiked along with crude when Russia started invading Ukraine in late February, while China demand was weak amid COVID-related lockdowns. For the second quarter, SCG expects some recovery in demand for polyolefins and PVC as lockdowns start easing, while supply for these polymers, as well as feedstock naphtha, is likely to stay limited.
For the whole of 2021, a strong recovery in oil prices and demand allowed SCG Chemicals to post a 64% rise in profit, which accounted for 61% of SCG group’s total net profit.
The Thai conglomerate’s board approved the planned IPO of SCG Chemicals on 26 January 2022, about nine months since it announced a possible restructuring of the business for the pursuit of strong growth opportunities in the ASEAN. It was the same strategy adopted for another subsidiary SCG Packaging, which started trading on the Thai bourse on 22 October 2020.
For SCG Chemicals, the IPO proceeds would fund new capacities being built in Indonesia and Vietnam; a planned vinyl chain integration and expansion; as well as strategic acquisitions, SCG said in a filing to the Thai bourse on 28 April 2022.
In Vietnam, its 100%-owned Long Son Petrochemical project (LSP1) in Ba Ria-Vung Tao province is now 93% complete and is on track to start up in the first half of next year, while a second complex at the site is being mulled. Test runs are expected to begin at the LSP1 polyolefins units of the complex by the end of the year; while the cracker start-up will be in Q1/Q2 2023.
As per MRC, on 26 October 2021, a fire hit Thai petrochemical producer Siam Cement's (SCG) Map Ta Phut olefins complex. The fire broke out at a naphtha tank, which was empty at the time of the incident, because it had been shut for cleaning and maintenance. The cause of the fire is unknown.
As MRC reported earlier, Map Ta Phut Olefins Co Ltd (MOC), a subsidiary of Thailand’s SCG Chemical, has completed the maintenance work at its cracker in Map Ta Phut. Thus, the cracker with the capacity of 900,000 mt/year of ethylene and 450,000 mt/year of propylene was shut for a scheduled turnaround on 2 November, 2020, and fully resumed operations in the fourth week of December, 2020.
mrchub.com