Thailand/Vietnam/Indonesia: TASCO secures stakes in Colas Group's units

Shareholdings in France-based road and rail-focused civil engineering company 402 Colas Group's subsidiaries Vietnamese Colas and Indonesian Colas have been acquired by Thai asphalt manufacturer 8060 Tipco Asphalt (TASCO) for THB 2.2 billion (€ 57.88 million/US$61.62 million) in its effort to become a leading asphalt provider in Asia Pacific.

Within the next five years, TASCO hopes its sales volume to increase to 6 million tonnes/year comprising of some 4 million tonnes of asphalt and 2 million tonnes of diesel and bunker oil by-products, according to Chaiwat Srivalwat, its managing director.

For the whole 2015, TASCO projects its sales volume to increase by 15% due to the government's infrastructure policy. In the period between January 2015 and September 2015, it had seen a drop in its revenue by 24% to THB 28 billion, while its sales volume rose to 1.68 million tonnes by 10%.

From 2015 through to2020, TASCO aims to spend a total of THB 8.5 billion with annual average spending at THB 1.7 billion.

A large sum of the funds will be used for its refinery project in Malaysia.

TASCO also aims to penetrate markets in five continents including the US and Europe by 2020.