Thai cement giant to buy seventh Vietnamese packaging firm

The deal, if successful, will increase the number of Vietnamese packaging companies owned by Siam Cement Group Public Company Limited (SCG Group) to seven.

TCG Solutions, a subsidiary of the Thai cement and building material giant, is set to purchase 12 million shares of Bien Hoa Packaging, which is based in the southern province of Dong Nai, later this month.

The registration happened after shareholders of Bien Hoa Packaging on December 9 approved the resignations of six of seven board members and replaced them with new leaders linked to SCG.

Suchai Korprasertsri, CEO of TCG Solutions, has been approved as chairman of Bien Hoa Packaging, while another Thai man, Ekarach Sinnarong, will be its CEO.

The deal to acquire the seventh firm shows SCG Group’s intention to dominate Vietnam’s packaging industry. One of the six it has taken over earlier is the largest local firm, Kraft Vina, which is a joint venture between SCG and Japanese packaging firm Rengo.

SCG was one of the earliest foreign investors in Vietnam in the 1990s. In the last decade the company has been pouring money to acquire major companies in the industry sector including one of the largest plastic producers, Binh Minh Plastics.

SCG now owns 20 subsidiaries in Vietnam covering a range of industries including cement, construction materials, chemicals and packaging.