PTTGC reviews its future investment plans amid Covid-19 outbreak
Petrochemical giant, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), will review its short and long-term investment plans in response to the fallout of Covid-19 outbreak, chief executive officer Kongkrapan Intarajang said on Tuesday (May 19).
In line with this decision, the company will also postpone deciding on its investment in a petrochemical complex in the United States to next year. Initially, it expected to make a final decision on this investment in the third quarter of this year.
The CEO said the company will revisit the projects it still has to make a final decision on, adding that the new resolutions will be based on the production cost of the projects as well as the change in product demands in response to the economy in the post-Covid era. The company will also review its merger and acquisition plans.
PTTGC, which is PTT Group’s petrochemical flagship, has already invested around Bt100 billion on three projects in the Eastern Economic Corridor, including the Olefins Reconfiguration Project. They are expected to be completed in the second half of this year.
Kongkrapan said the company will seek shareholders’ approval on June 2 to issue debentures worth up to US$4 billion during the 2020-2024 timeframe to boost liquidity. It has about Bt23 billion cash in hand.
It is also planning to cut up to Bt1 billion worth of unnecessary expenses this year.
The company has maintained an annual growth of product sales this year at between 7-10 per cent in line with the greater production, though the sales in the first quarter was hit by the outbreak.
