Proposed Acquisition

RNS Number : 4141N

Asian Plantations Limited

28 September 2012

 



28 September 2012

Asian Plantations Ltd

("Asian Plantations" or the "Company")

Proposed Acquisition

The directors of Asian Plantations (the "Board") are pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Asian Plantations (Sarawak) II Sdn Bhd, has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of Grand Performance Sdn Bhd ("GP") (the "Proposed Acquisition"), which owns approximately 7,000 hectares of land zoned for the development of palm oil in Sarawak, Malaysia (the "GP Estate").

The total consideration for the Proposed Acquisition, is RM45 million (circa. US$14.7 million) and is payable in three tranches:

·      The initial, fully refundable tranche of RM1.7 million (circa. US$0.5 million) is payable immediately.

·      A second tranche of RM6.7 million (circa. US$2.2 million) is payable seven days from the fulfillment of the conditions precedent.

·      A further tranche of RM36.7 million (circa. US$11.9 million) is to be paid within one month of the fulfillment of conditions precedent and is also subject to bank financing. The total gross purchase price per hectare is approximately RM6,429 (circa. US$2,100). APL is in discussions with lending banks and is confident that it will secure funding on favorable terms. However, in the event that it is not able to raise sufficient finance [Dennis to add comment].

The Proposed Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions precedent (the "Conditions Precedent"), which include, inter alia:

·      Various regulatory approvals;

·      Completion of the Company's legal and financial due diligence in respect of the GP Estate; and,

·      Approval by the Board and the directors of GP.

The Board are confident that the Conditions Precedent will be met, and it is anticipated that the Proposed Acquisition will be completed during the first quarter of 2013 after the delivery of the audited accounts for Grand Performance Sdn Bhd. Further updates will be provided in due course.

Information on Grand Performance Sdn Bhd

The GP Estate is adjacent to the Company's existing palm oil plantations and consists of 7,000 hectares of agriculturally titled land. The GP estate is less than 5 km from the boundaries with our Incosetia estate and is ideally located to generate additional volume for our crushing mill planned for opening in December 2012. The Company expects, subject to the availability of sufficient working capital, to fully complete all the in-the-ground planting by the end of 2014.

In addition, the Board believes that the Company has secured an attractive valuation of the GP Estate relative to other publicly announced land transactions in East Malaysia, at a time of increasing scarcity of agricultural land in Malaysia.

GP is a newly formed company and its first accounts will be produced as at 31 December 2012.

Planting Projections

Should the acquisition of the GP Estate complete as anticipated, the Company will have 27,770 hectares of titled land. Management expects to have a final minimum total of 22,000 hectares planted with palm oil (excluding all roads, common areas, mill, quarries, rubber plantings, buffer zones, etc.) by the end of 2014. Based on our previously announced target of 14,200 hectares planted by year-end 2012, and assuming completion in Q1 2013 the remaining 7,800 hectares would be planted equally in 2013 and 2014.

Dennis Melka, APL's Joint Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"It has become more apparent during the course of 2011 and 2012 that the availability of appropriately titled land suitable for the development of palm oil plantations in Sarawak is becoming increasingly scarce. I am therefore delighted that we have been able to agree the terms for the Proposed Acquisition.  We will continue to explore potential further acquisitions on an opportunistic basis but our main focus will now be on fully planting our existing plantations and opening our milling facility. I look forward to providing shareholders with updates regarding our continued progress in this regard in due course."

-ENDS-

For further information contact:

Asian Plantations Limited Graeme Brown, Co-Founder & Joint Chief Executive Officer Dennis Melka, Co-Founder & Joint Chief Executive Officer	Tel:  [phone]
Strand Hanson Limited James Harris Paul Cocker James Bellman	Tel: [phone]
Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited Steve Baldwin Dan Iacopetti	Tel:   [phone]
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited Tom Nicholson Callum Stewart	Tel:   [phone] Tel: [phone]
Bankside Consultants Simon Rothschild	Tel: [phone]

 

END

 

 

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