Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL), an RPG Group company, is looking at a follow on public offer (FPO) to fund its carbon black unit in Vietnam.
“We have kept options open for further equity infusion,” said Ashok Goyal, managing director of the company.
PCBL is likely to form a special purpose vehicle for the $45-mn project, the company’s first overseas venture on eight hectares located at the Baria Vung Tan province of Vietnam.
PCBL signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Vietnam National Chemical Corp (Vinachem) for the project early this month. Vinachem’s share in the new company will be 20% or less with PCBL holding the rest of the shares.
Vinachem is likely to rope in at least three companies to be a part of the joint venture.
Talking to reporters at the sidelines of the annual general meeting of PCBL, Goyal said: “The feasibility study for the project will be complete by September this year.”
Keeping the growth of the automobile industry in mind, PCBL has planned to scale up production at its Kochi plant to 85,000 million tonne from 35,000mt at present. It has also embarked upon a greenfield project at Mundra in Gujarat. The expected annual capacity of carbon black will be 75,000mt at the Mundra facility.
The company’s present installed capacity is 2,70,000mt per annum. The total capacity is expected to increase to 3,95,000mt before the end of the next fiscal.