Packaging contractor Sovi to spend $46 mln on relocating one Vietnam factory, expanding another

Bien Hoa Packaging JSC, widely known as Sovi, will spend VND1,175 billion ($46.23 million) to relocate its plant from a polluting industrial park in the southern province of Dong Nai and expand another in the neighboring province of Binh Duong.

Documents sent to shareholders last Friday in preparation for an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for December 18 note that Sovi is among the first entities to move out of the Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park (IP) before December 2025 at the local government’s request.

Sovi will expand its factory in Binh Duong before relocating its facility at the Bien Hoa 1 IP in Dong Nai to Loc An-Binh Son IP, another IP in the same province’s Long Thanh district.

Established in 1968, Sovi was the first corrugated packaging producer in Vietnam.

It produces carton packages for cosmetics, confectionery, beverages, and footwear manufacturers.

Listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as SVI, the company is one of the five largest packaging providers in southern Vietnam, with clients including Unilever, Pepsico, Nestlé, Kido Group, and Vinacafé.

In December 2020, TCG Solutions, a subsidiary of Siam Cement Group (SCG) – Thailand's largest industrial conglomerate, acquired a 94.11% stake in Sovi.

In the first nine months of this year, Sovi earned net profits of VND48 billion ($1.89 million) on revenues of VND1,085 billion (42.69 million), down 51.7% and 1% year-on-year, respectively.

SVI shares were flat at VND62,300 ($2.45) apiece on Monday.

The relocation of production facilities is part of Dong Nai’s plan to convert Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park, established in 1963 as the first IP in Vietnam, into an urban area-trade-services complex, thereby improving environmental quality in the area.

The IP, which covers 324 hectares at the center of Bien Hoa town, now houses 76 companies with more than 21,000 employees, including six foreign firms employing over 6,000 people. It has been contaminating the Dong Nai river, which provides water for millions of residents in the southern region.