Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC) recentlyannounced its cooperation with An Phat Holdings (APH) and an expectedinvestment of 20 million USD to fund APH’s first compostable materialmanufacturing plant in Vietnam and the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia.

IFCplans to invest 20 million USD in APH to support the implementation of theplant in the form of a seven-year loan that can be converted into APH shares.

Earlier,on June 22, APH carried out an IPO and announced its plan to list 132.6 millionshares to call for investment to build the plant. With this project, APHwill take the initiative in raw materials, cut production costs, create acompetitive advantage, and make environmentally friendly products popular inboth domestic and international markets.

Accordingto IFC, before investing, the organisation carried out a thorough analysis ofAPH’s financial capacity, potential and development prospects, and its projects.

Oneof the most important reasons for the investment in APH’s compostable materialmanufacturing plant was its high possibility of success. APH is the firstmanufacturer of compostable products in Vietnam. IFC believed in APH’s businessgoal to promote sustainability of the enterprise and appreciated itsresponsibility for the environment, society and corporate governance (ESG).

Thegroup has years of experience in operating facilities with an annual capacityof 96,000 tonnes of thin monolayer film. The products are present innearly 70 countries around the world. Currently, APH is the largest thinmonolayer film manufacturer in Southeast Asia with 20 percent of the marketshare of Vietnam’s thin monolayer film exports.

APHis the first company in Vietnam to successfully produce compostable products,which are exported to more than 20 countries around the world, includingfastidious markets such as France, the UK, Japan, the US and Canada.

AnPhat Holdings is the parent company of more than 15 member companies operatingin packaging; compostable products and compounds; engineering plastics andbuilding materials plastics; raw materials and chemicals for plastics industry;precision engineering and moulding; industrial real estate. APH also directlyowns two listed companies, Hanoi Plastics JSC (NHH) and An Phat Bioplastics JSC(AAA), and indirectly owns more than 10 companies through the two listedcompanies.

OnJuly 28, APH was listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE).

Constructionof the 82 million USD plant is expected to start in early 2021 in Hai PhongCity. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022 with an annualcapacity of 20,000 tonnes. When the project comes into operation in 2022, APHexpects to reduce production costs by 20-30 percent for subsidiaries while theparent company still enjoys a gross profit margin of 25-30 percent of thisproject. APH targets that compostable products will contribute 40-50 percent ofthe group’s packaging revenue by 2023.

Asthe largest market cap plastic stock in Vietnam, APH’s market capitalisationreached approximately 414 million USD after nearly three months of listing./.