TTC Group to list sugar op in Singapore by 2020

October 04, 2016 | 09:39

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Conglomerate TTC Group, which operates in sugar production, energy, and real estate, plans to raise $600 million from selling the shares of one of its sugar units then list it in Singapore by 2020.

Ahead of the planned auction, the group’s Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh SC (TTC Sugar) will merge with another sugar company to create Vietnam’s largest sugar producer worth $200 million, the group’s officials said in an interview with Bloomberg. TTC Sugar’s vice chairwoman Dang Huynh Uc My said that the deal would be completed early next year.

TTC Sugar is one of the 10 sugar units owned by the conglomerate and has contributed 53 per cent of its pre-tax profit last year. The group expects its sugar business to generate $35 million of its $62 million 2016 pre-tax income. My said the parent conglomerate will invest an additional $600 million in its sugar business by 2020.

A supplier to Vietnam Dairy Products JSC and Kido Group Corp., TTC Group is moving to increase sugar production. The company is buying a sugar mill with a designed annual capacity of 70,000 tons and a 6,000-hectare sugarcane plantation from Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC, with the $100-million deal expected to close in October. The mill will start operation in December and production at the plantation is expected to increase five-fold, with one third of the output shipped to Europe in the next five years, said My.

The company is also targeting a 2.5-fold expansion of its Cambodian sugarcane plantation, to 20,000 hectares. The expansion will lower production costs by one-fifth, making Vietnamese sugar products more competitive against imported and black-market sugar products in the country, she said.

The group is also seeking to boost TTC Sugar’s foreign ownership ratio to 35 per cent (from 11 per cent) during the first quarter of next year, said CEO Thai Van Chuyen.

Earlier, VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co., Vietnam’s only private airline, said it planned an overseas listing in either Singapore or Hong Kong after its initial public offering this year, but was later reported to have suspended the plan due to overly complex procedures.