FGV to submit bid for stake in New Britain Palm Oil in July

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) will submit its bid for the proposed acquisition of a 49% stake in New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL), held by Kulim Malaysia Bhd, next month.
FGV's group president and CEO Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah said the company is still in discussions and is assessing the potential of the proposed acquisition. He said FGV is seeking to meet with the advisers representing NBPOL soonest possible.
"We are now discussing first with NBPOL advisers. And there will be further discussions soon," Emir told reporters after the company's AGM yesterday.
"Our agriculture team is studying the potential in Papua New Guinea. The yield is good as the plantation in Papua New Guinea can produce between 26 tonnes and 27 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per hectare," he said.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia last month, FGV said it is always exploring potential deals that support its growth strategy and is evaluating several potential brownfield plantations, not limited to NBPOL.
FGV manages more than 450,000ha of plantation estates in Malaysia and Indonesia and produces over 5 million tonnes of fresh fruit bunches annually.
No indicative timing was given as to when the deal will be concluded.
On another note, Mohd Emir said FGV is in the midst of divesting or unlocking the value of its non-core assets as part of its transformation initiative to improve its financial performance.
"The strategy for 2014 is we are looking at divesting and unlocking value of our non-core assets. We may be divesting some of those non-core assets," he said.
"We are in the process now. We will be divesting assets that are not within our value chain or underperforming. We want to provide better shareholder value," he added.
Mohd Emir said the non-core assets include Felda Prodata Systems Sdn Bhd and Felda Engineering Services Sdn Bhd.
In 2013, FGV disposed of its 20% staje in Tradewinds (M) Bhd, which realised a capital appreciation of about 165% with a windfall of RM551.4 million that will be used for its expansion programme.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2013, FGV's net profit rose 21.7% to RM980.99 million, up from RM805.95 million a year before that, while revenue slipped by 2.5% to RM12.57 billion, from RM12.89 billion previously.