Roongrote to replace Kan at SCG
SIAM CEMENT GROUP'S ( SCG) board of directors has announced the appointment of Roongrote Rangsiyopash as the company's next president and chief executive officer, effective from January 1 next year.
Roongrote, currently the group’s executive vice president, will replace Kan Trakulhoon, who retires at the end of this year.
Meanwhile, SCG announced it was setting aside a Bt15-billion investment budget for research and development over the next two years in support of its business strategy to focus on high-value-added products and services.
The company’s target is that sales from high-value-added products and services will account for 50 per cent of revenue in 2017, Kan said yesterday.
Some Bt6.7 billion of the R&D budget is earmarked for next year, and Bt8.3 billion for 2017.
Most of the high-value-added products and services will be developed in Thailand in the sectors of cement and other building materials, chemicals and packaging.
For the first nine months of this year, the company reported revenue of Bt124.07 billion from high-value-added products and services, representing 37 per cent of overall SCG revenue, against 34 per cent in the same period last year.
SCG has also set aside an investment budget for merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, business expansion and the renovation of its production plants both in Thailand and overseas.
The amount set aside is between Bt40 billion and Bt50 billion a year, the group’s vice president for finance and investment and chief financial officer, Chaovalit Ekabut, said after a press conference yesterday.
The group spent Bt36 billion on M&As, investment in new plants and renovation of existing factories in the first nine months of this year, leaving a budget of Bt14 billion for the current quarter, he said.
“We see business opportunity for expanding our investment both domestically and overseas, especially in Asean countries.”
Meanwhile, the company has lowered its 2015 revenue target to Bt440 billion, from the previous estimate of Bt490, after witnessing lower-than-expected demand for cement and other building materials.
SCG had earlier estimated that demand for cement would increase 3 per cent this year, but now predicts zero growth after the market suffered a year-on-year contraction of 1 per cent during the first nine months.
Selling prices of petrochemicals have also fallen, by up to 20 per cent, following the decline in oil prices since early this year.
While these factors have caused the group to revise down its full-year revenue target, net profit is still growing thanks to the net profit margin on chemical products having continued to increase, Kan said.
For the first nine months, SCG reported total revenue from sales amounting to Bt333.99 billion, a 10-per-cent decrease from the same period last year. Net earnings for the period came in at Bt33.95 billion, for a year-on-year rise of 37 per cent.
