Petronas Chemicals share price surges on Malaysia debut

(ICIS)--Petronas Chemicals Group (PCG) shares debuted strongly on the Malaysian stock exchange on Friday, with price jumping by as much as 10% from its initial public offering (IPO) price, underscoring the strong appetite for Asian big-capital stocks.

PCG's $4.1bn (┬3.1bn) IPO was the biggest to come out of Malaysia and out of southeast Asia to date, beating the $3.3bn offering of telecommunications firm Maxis, according to media reports.

PCG set its IPO price to institutional investors, which took up 88% of its IPO of 2.48bn shares, at M$5.20/share, while retail offerings of 293m shares were priced at a 3% discount to the set price.

The trading debutante comprises the 22 petrochemical-related businesses of state oil and gas firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas).

Its operations cover olefins, polymers, fertilizers, methanol and other basic chemical and derivative products. Based on volumes, the company is the biggest producer of methanol and ethylene glycols in southeast Asia, according to its website.

The company's IPO proceeds would be used for future expansion, which would include greenfield ammonia and urea projects off east Malaysia.

MRC

Despite own PE production capacities, the Russian market 70% still depends on the shipment from external suppliers. The main reason is limited grade assortment from the Russian producers.

The main mover of growing demand for linear polyethylene are stretch film producers, in particular, cast film. Market leaders firmly maintain their positions: Regent-stretch, Lava, Nova roll and Ecotek. Nevertheless, over last two years in Russia a few more cast stretch film productions were launched.

Among them we should mention industrial park Kamskie Polyani, whose production facilities allow to produce up to 15 KT p.a. of reinforced stretch film.

MRC

(Bloomberg Business Week) -- Mossi & Ghisolfi International SA, an Italian chemicals company that skipped coupons on perpetual bonds issued before the credit crunch, now wants to repurchase the debt at a 55 percent discount.

M&G will pay 45 cents on the euro for its 200 million euros ($266 million) of subordinated 7.5 percent notes, which were quoted at about 12 cents before the Nov. 22 buyback started, according to the offer document. The company is still paying a ⌠significant premium to the market price, said Lorenzo Montagna, M&G's director of corporate strategy in Milan.

M&G is the world's largest producer of polyethylene terephthalate for packaging and employs more than 3,000 staff.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- South Korea's industrial film maker SKC Ltd., has completed a polyurethane (PU) plant in a special economic zone in southwestern Poland. This is SKC's third overseas polyurethane plant.

Earlier this year, in May, SKC completed its polyurethane plant in Georgia, the United States. The plant, completed after seven months of construction, is to produce 20,000 tpa of polyurethane, mainly to South Korean manufacturers of automotive parts and European and Russian home appliance makers.

SKC plans to build three additional polyurethane plants by 2013 in India and Southeast Asia with the aim of increasing its production capacity of polyurethane to 100,000 tpa.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. (Mississauga, ON) has been sold by its shareholders to DXS International Enterprises Inc., a Canadian corporation owned by the publicly traded Chinese company, Dalian Rubber & Plastics Machinery Co. Ltd.

Macro, which was founded in 1978, supplies systems, components, and services to the plastic film and sheet industries. Dalian Rubber & Plastics Machinery, which trades on the Shanghai stock exchange, manufactures blown film extruders, calendar systems, and pelletizing lines, selling into China and exporting.

In a release, Macro said that it will continue to operate autonomously and will retain its key management personnel and operational structure. The company also said that its acquisition will allow it to accelerate a previously planned expansion of its Canadian manufacturing and R&D facility in Mississauga that was already underway.

MRC