HÀ NỘI – Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) has acquired a part of Long Sơn Petrochemicals (LSP) Complex for US$36.1 million, reviving its delayed petrochemical complex in Việt Nam.

The $36.1 million acquisition raises SCG’s stake in LSP from 46 per cent to 71 per cent, making it the largest shareholder. The remaining 29 per cent is held by Vietnam Oil and Gas group PetroVietnam (PVN).

The corporation had been looking for a new partner for the LSP project in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu since 2015 after Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) decided to withdraw. Finally, SCG purchased the entire 25 per cent stake from Qatar Petroleum Việt Nam Limited (QPIV), a division of QPI.

The transaction was carried out through SCG’s wholly-owned subsidiary Vina SCG Chemicals (VSCG), the company said in a filing.

The project will be financed through a combination of equity and debt, the final decision for which is expected to be made in the first half of 2017.

Located around 100km from HCM City, LSP is the first petrochemical complex in Việt Nam. The project’s goal is to develop a 1-million-tonne ethylene cracker with a flexible gas and naphtha feed, creating an olefin capacity of up to 1.6 million tonnes per year.

SCG is a century-old Thai corporation with interests in cement production, construction materials, chemicals and packaging. Regionally, it has investments in Indonesia, Việt Nam and Cambodia. By the end of 2016, SCG had invested more than $800 million through a number of projects in Việt Nam. – VNS