Japan’s Asahi Glass to acquire 59% stake in Thai Vinythai

According to media reports, Japan’s major auto glass and display panel components maker Asahi Glass will acquire a 59% stake in Thai plastics company Vinythai from Solvay SA, a Belgium chemical firm, for which it will pay 33.5 billion yen ($300 million).

Solvay owned 75% of Vinythai before the acquisition while its shares now went down to 16%. The remaining 25% of Vinythai belongs to PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC). Vinythai has plants in Thailand’s Rayong province including a 280,000 tons/year PVC plant and a 400,000 tons/year VCM plant.

Asahi Glass reportedly announced that it aims to enhance its chemical business in Southeast Asia with this new acquisition and the business year ending on December 31 will not be affected.

The deal means Solvay will retreat further from PVC production after finalizing its operations in Europe and its Brazilian activities are divested in order to focus more on specialty chemicals and polymers, the reports told.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of June 2017.