TPI to auction cement unit stake

Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI) will sell its 30 per cent stake in cement maker TPI Polene PCL in an electronic auction on Aug. 9, TPI’s debt administrator said on Thursday.  Interested bidders were required to submit letter of intent to participate in the auction from Aug. 5-8, the administrator said in a statement to the stock exchange.  Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) is financial adviser for the stake sale, which is part of $2.7 billion debt restructuring plan of TPI, the country’s largest corporate defaulter.  TPI plans to raise $250 million from the auction and the proceeds would be used to repay debt.  A management team source has said the offer price for the 249 million shares should not be lower than 40 baht ($0.97) each. 

TPI Polene, Thailand’s number three cement maker, has been a target of global cement makers.  First it negotiated selling a majority stake to Mexico’s Cemex then did a deal with rival Siam City Cement , which is 32 per cent owned by Switzerland’s Holcim . But the deals were cancelled later.  Earlier this week, Siam City Cement said it was not interested in the auction because it would not get management control.