Thai PTT's merger plan for TOC, NPC likely to fall through

19 October 2004 04:45  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--A study being conducted by Thailand’s sole natural gas supplier PTT Pcl on merging its cracker operating affiliates is unlikely to push forward the proposed merger move, CNI was told on Tuesday.

 

An official with Thai Olefins Co (TOC) said that PTT’s plan to merge TOC with fellow cracker-operating affiliate National Petrochemical Co (NPC) was not expected to be endorsed by other shareholders of NPC and TOC.

 

“We have already done several studies on merging TOC and NPC, and we could not find any new synergies that could be gained (from such a move),” he said.

 

As well as from some supply arrangements, "(TOC and NPC) already share pipelines, maintenance and export (terminal) services, so there’s very little else that could be achieved by a merger,” the official said.

 

The official noted that a number of plans have been discussed in the past for integrating PTT’s petrochemical affiliates, but none of the studies had yet found any rationale for the merger move.

 

As well as NPC and TOC, PTT has earlier floated the idea of involving Aromatics Thailand Co (ATC) in a three-way merger. However, this was abandoned earlier this year. It is considering involving Bangkok Polyethylene (BPE) in a merger at a later date.

 

Various merger proposals for NPC and TOC have been floated over the past decade, all of which have fallen through.

By: Chris Myrick
+44 208 652 3214

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