KUALA LUMPUR: Cash-rich Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV), with RM3.85 billion cash from its initial public offering (IPO), is evaluating 12 acquisition proposals including plantation as well as downstream businesses.
The world’s third largest palm oil operator expects to announce its first acquisition within the next three months.
FGV chairman Tan Sri Isa Haji Abdul Samad said FGV’s gross proceeds from the IPO in June 2012 totalled RM4.46 billion, but as at March 31 the remaining gross proceeds stood at RM3.85 billion.
“Of this, we aim to spend almost 60 per cent or RM2.2 billion acquiring plantation assets, RM840 million to buy selected mills and refineries, and RM780 million to expand our oils and fats downstream segment,” Isa said in a media briefing after FGV’s first annual general meeting (AGM) as a public listed company.
A further RM41 million, Isa said, has been set aside for capital expenditure to enhance efficiency at FGV’s operations while the rest goes to loan repayments and other expenses.
Meanwhile, group president Tan Sri Sabri Ahmad said there is a good likelihood of acquiring and planting another 20,000 hectares of oil palm land in Indonesia’s Kalimantan province.
“Last year, FGV acquired about 15,000 hectares through its 95 per cent-owned PT Citra Niaga Perkasa,” Sabri said in the media briefing.
FGV has approximately 350,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Malaysia that produced 5.2 million metric tonnes of fresh fruit bunches in 2012.
It also has operations in 10 countries across four continents, and does not discount potential upstream activities in Africa.
“We are consolidating by expanding into countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – planting other crops such as rubber while also growing aggressively the market for our palm-based consumer goods there,” Sabri added. — Bernama