While 2021 proved to be a tough year for the global economy with strong headwinds, such challenges have failed to throw chemical giant Indorama Ventures Plc (IVL) off course, thanks to the leadership of its founder and CEO Aloke Lohia.
Mr Lohia, an India-born billionaire who has lived in Thailand for more than 30 years, started production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Thailand for the first time in 1995 and expanded to the US in 2003 before going global.
From its early days as a PET producer, backward integration into key feedstocks and diversifying into polyester fibres has led to tremendous growth.
Under Mr Lohia’s global vision, IVL grew primarily through acquisitions, expanding its product portfolio and operating footprint across the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
The company is now the world’s largest PET producer and recycler with 124 operating sites in 33 countries and global employees numbering more than 244,000.
In 2011, Mr Lohia himself was recognised as one of the Top 40 Power Players by ICIS (Independent Chemical Information Service), the world’s largest petrochemical market information provider.
This year, the IVL CEO is once again included in the ICIS Top 40 Power Players, ranking 12th.
With a net worth of $2.4 billion (79.8 billion baht), 63-year-old Mr Lohia ranks 13th on Thailand’s 50 Richest 2021 list compiled by Forbes magazine. Last year, IVL also delivered strong financial results despite Covid-19’s impact on the supply chain and a sharp drop in oil prices, thanks to the company’s integrated manufacturing and regional footprint.
In the quarter to September, its net profit jumped 1,623% year-on-year to 6.548 billion baht as revenue surged 55% to 126.9 billion baht. Production volume hit a record of 3.27 million tonnes in the third quarter.
“I personally have faced two big ones [financial crises], in 1997 and 2008-2009, and in between were Sars and the oil crisis,” Mr Lohia said in a previous interview.
“We seem to face a crisis every five years or so. I think we will come out of this stronger because we are learning from every crisis.”
Despite the economic fallout, Mr Lohia has continued to drive IVL’s expansion through acquisitions.
Highlights of the company’s investments last year include the acquisition of Brazil-based Oxiteno SA Industria e Comercio, a subsidiary of Ultrapar Participacoes SA. The deal will give the company a unique portfolio in high-value surfactants and extend its existing integrated oxides and derivatives business.
IVL also announced it will build a facility in Karawang, West Java, to recycle almost two billion plastic bottles a year in support of the government’s plan to reduce ocean debris. The facility is planned to be launched in 2023.
IVL has completed its acquisition of CarbonLite Holdings’ facility in Texas, the US, as part of the company’s commitment to increasing PET and recycling capacity.
As well, IVL has focused on sustainability by spearheading the recycling of post-consumer PET packaging, having processed over 58 billion post-consumer PET bottles from 2011 to date. With a target of recycling 50 billion bottles per annum, the company has committed an investment of US$1.5 billion to achieve its sustainability goals.
Besides continued business expansion this year, IVL remains committed to the various transformation programmes that it embarked on in 2020.
Mr Lohia, who has been IVL Group CEO since its inception, has been leading organisational transformation including the Project Olympus, the company’s cost and business transformation project, and the “ONE IVL” integrated ERP platform, with a capex commitment of over $200 million, to become a “future-ready intelligent enterprise”.