Issue of Convertible Bonds

RNS Number : 5269M

Asian Plantations Limited

17 August 2011

 



17 August 2011

Asian Plantations Limited

("APL" or the "Company")

Issue of Convertible Bonds

Asian Plantations Limited (LSE: PALM), a palm oil plantation company with operations in Malaysia, is pleased to announce that the Company has issued convertible unsecured bonds ("Convertible Bonds"), totalling US$2.1 million, via a Company sponsored placing, to investors including Asian Agri Capital Limited, an existing shareholder in the Company, the Tee Teh Family Office, a Southeast Asian investor with extensive property and palm oil interests in the region, and El Oro Limited, a collective investment vehicle.

The Convertible Bonds bear a cash interest coupon of 2.50 per cent. per annum, which is payable semi-annually until the four year maturity in 2015 (the "Maturity Date").

The Convertible Bonds may be converted, in aggregate, into 434,700 new ordinary shares of no par value in the Company. This represents a conversion price of 294 pence per share, based on the current exchange rate, at any time until the Maturity Date at the individual bondholder's election. This conversion price represents a 17 per cent. premium to the closing price on 16 August 2011, being the last business day prior to this announcement. 

The Company shall redeem all outstanding, non-converted Convertible Bonds, in whole, on the Maturity Date, such that the amounts paid by the Company on redemption result in the bondholders having achieved, in respect of the Convertible Bonds, including coupon payments, an internal rate of return of 10 per cent. 

The Company is currently in advanced discussions in relation to a number of acquisition opportunities, consistent with the Company's previously stated strategy to achieve a land resource of titled, Malaysian agricultural land in excess of 20,000 hectares by the end of 2011, and intends to add the net proceeds from the Convertible Bonds to cash reserves set aside for any such acquisitions.

For further information contact:

Asian Plantations Limited Dennis Melka, Joint Chief Executive Officer Graeme Brown, Joint Chief Executive Officer	Tel:  [phone]
Strand Hanson Limited James Harris Paul Cocker Liam Buswell	Tel: [phone]
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited Tom Nicholson Callum Stewart	Tel: [phone]
Bankside Consultants Simon Rothschild	Tel: [phone]

 

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