Completion of Joint-Venture

RNS Number : 6691A

Equatorial Palm Oil plc

03 February 2011

 



3 February 2011

Equatorial Palm Oil Plc

("EPO" or the "Company")

Completion of Joint-Venture with Biopalm Energy Ltd.

Further to the announcement of 29 December 2010, the Board of EPO announces that the Joint Venture Agreement has been fully implemented and that US$22.5 million in cash from Biopalm Energy Ltd has now been received by the joint venture company set up to develop its c.169,000 hectare land position at Palm Bay, Butaw and River Cess in Liberia.

Equatorial Palm Oil plc Company Michael Frayne, Chairman	[phone]
Shore Capital & Corporate Ltd. NOMAD and Joint Broker Pascal Keane Edward Mansfield	[phone]
Mirabaud Securities LLP Broker Peter Krens	[phone]
Pelham Bell Pottinger Financial  / Corporate PR Charles Vivian	[phone]

Notes to Editors:

Information on Equatorial Palm Oil Ltd.

The Company's objective is to become a global, sustainable, low cost producer of crude palm oil.

The Company is developing a low-cost CPO production-base sourced from its initial land bank. The Group has acquired oil palm mills to process the Fresh Fruit Bunches ('FFB') harvested from the plantations in Crude Palm Oil ('CPO') and other related products. The CPO produced is initially intended for sale into the local Liberian and West African markets where it is a key staple food and in short demand. West Africa is currently a net importer of 400,000 tpa of CPO. The longer term objective is to develop sufficient scale in its production and processing of CPO in order to widen exports to a broader international market including Europe, where the company will benefit from geographical advantage in freight costs and increasing demand for a sustainable product.

Information on the Siva Group and Biopalm Energy Limited

The Siva Group

The Siva Group was founded in 1986 by Mr. Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, and is headquartered out of Chennai, India valued in excess of US$3 billion, with over 3,000 employees and operations in Realty, Telecom, Project Engineering, Shipping, Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Hospitality and e-education/software. 

Biopalm Energy Ltd

Biopalm Energy Ltd is a company based out of Singapore. The aim of this company is to invest in oil palm projects and developments around the world.  Biopalm Energy Ltd is a wholly owned step down subsidiary of Siva Ventures Ltd.

On 27 May 2010 the Company announced that it had issued 33,333,333 new Ordinary Shares to Biopalm Energy Ltd, currently representing approximately 27.5 per cent. of the Company's issued shares post-Subscription, at a price of 15p (the "Subscription Price") raising £5 million.  At the time of the Subscription the Subscription Price represented a 42.9 per cent. premium over the closing price of 10.59 per Ordinary Share on 26 May 2010, being the last available business day prior to the Subscription. 

Pursuant to the terms of the Subscription, Biopalm Energy Ltd was granted the right to appoint a Non-Executive Director to the board of the Company. On 27 September 2010 Biopalm Energy Ltd exercised this right, appointing Shankar Varadharajan as a non-executive director to the Board.

 

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