IVL plans no takeovers for 18 months

The company needs time to upgrade its production lines.

Its business has not been hurt by the euro debt crisis and global economic slowdown, as most of its products are used in the making of consumer goods and especially their packaging, which is not sensitive to economies’ performance.

"The company has acquired a number of businesses, so this time should be spent on improving production processes to have ultimate efficiency," chief executive officer Aloke Lohia said yesterday.

"After the middle of next year, the company will look for new business acquisitions."

The main targets will still be businesses related to purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which could help increase its cash flow, he said.

Initially, the company has allocated Bt800 million of the budget for production-bottleneck improvement to increase capacity to 8 million tonnes a year in 2014 from 6.5 million tonnes currently.

IVL’s core products are PET, polyester fibre and yarn, and PTA.

This year, the company expects revenue to reach US$8 billion (Bt250 billion), up 25 per cent from last year and 20 per cent higher than its earlier target.

The key drivers of revenue growth are capacity expansion at facilities in China, the Netherlands and Lop Buri and the acquisition of Polypet Karyapersada in Indonesia early this year, which will add 500,000 tonnes to its PET capacity in the current half.

The Lop Buri plant is now running at full speed after slowing down after the flood last year.