Thai Oil Plc (TOP), Thailand's largest oil refining company by capacity, is looking forward to making investments in India and Vietnam, after Indonesia, where it is scheduled to conclude a petrochemical asset purchase deal early next year.
The investments in the three countries involve oil refinery, lube oil and high-value petrochemical products.
TOP expects bright prospects from business expansion into these countries. In Vietnam, it has facilities such as warehouses in the northern and southern regions, while the company signed a memorandum of understanding in India with a local company to jointly seek new business opportunities.
Wirat Uanarumit, president and chief executive of TOP, said high rates of economic growth and large numbers of young people among the populations of the three countries mean these nations offer the best potential for investments in Asia.
TOP is preparing to settle a share purchase in PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical producer, early next year.
The payment, valued at US$270 million, follows the first tranche payment of $913 million which was made at the end of last year.
The firm will raise funds to support the payment by selling 221 million shares to its existing shareholders and other investors at 52-54 baht a share.
The subscription period for the TOP share purchase is Sept 9-16.
The final share price will be announced on Sept 20.
This fundraising plan will help finance the $5-billion development of CAP's new production facility named PT Chandra Asri Perksasa, or CAP 2. The new plant should increase CAP's capacity to 8 million tonnes per year, up from 4.2 million tonnes.
TOP earlier announced it had acquired a stake in US-based startup Versogen, a maker of "green hydrogen" as it continues to expand its business.
Versogen uses electricity produced by solar and wind energy to produce hydrogen for use in industry, part of efforts to help reduce carbon emissions.
