Thai firm makes $890 mln plunge into Vietnam's building materials market

By Agencies August 6, 2016 | 07:58 pm PT

Laborers work at the construction site of an apartment building in Hanoi on July 1, 2015. Photo by Reuters/Kham

The deal is further evidence of rising Thai investment in Vietnam.

Building materials company LafargeHolcim Ltd has signed an agreement with Thailand's Siam City Cement Public Company Limited (SCCC) to sell its 65 percent stake in LafargeHolcim Vietnam, Reuters reported this week, citing the Swiss-French group.

The value of the deal has been set at 867 million Swiss francs ($890.7 million).

LafargeHolcim said the transaction was subject to customary regulatory measures and shareholder approval, as well as to a right to first refusal for LafargeHolcim's joint venture partner. It is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2016.

According to a Bangkok Post report on Saturday, SCCC is set to bring the acquisition of the cement maker in Vietnam up for shareholders' approval at a meeting to be held in the next three weeks, said a company official who asked not to be named.

To be approved, the acquisition deal needs to capture the votes of at least 75% of shareholders who attend the meeting and are eligible to vote.

The Holcim (Vietnam) deal is the latest acquisition effort by SCCC this year, in line with broader plans to buy several cement and building materials companies over the last several months.

Before SCCC, a number of Thai companies have already set foot in Vietnam.

Thailand's Central Group has sold its 25 percent stake in Big C Supercenter Plc in Thailand for 50 billion baht ($1.42 billion) in a bid to focus on Big C Vietnam.

Central announced on April 29 that it had bought Big C’s operations in Vietnam from France's Casino Group for 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion).

Thailand's consumer goods group TCC Holding Co. Ltd, in January this year completed its acquisition of the Vietnamese operations of Metro for 655 million euros ($704.1 million).

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