Business

Tuesday January 10, 2012

Takaso into timber ops in Papua New Guinea

By YVONNE TAN
yvonne@thestar.com.my


PETALING JAYA: Takaso Resources Bhd, which recently returned to the black, will acquire a Papua New Guinea company that has a timber licence and concession, in a bid to diversify its business, sources said.

“Upon acquiring this company, Takaso, whose core business is condom manufacturing, will gain immediate technical expertise in the area of timber,” a source said.

When contacted, Takaso chief financial officer Su Seong Yeen declined to comment.

The source said Takaso would acquire Kayumas Plantation PNG Ltd, which holds the rights to a net loggable area of 40,000ha of timber, possibly worth up to RM500mil, in Inland Pomio, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.

The length of extraction was up to nine years, he said.

The signing between the parties for this deal is expected to take place on Thursday.

Takaso said last month that it was planning to diversify into new businesses to boost profit and restructure its business.

It recently raised RM32mil through a rights issue to fund such plans.

It had acquired Benchmark Vista Sdn Bhd, a cathode ray tube recycler, for RM2mil as part of its restructuring process.

Shares in the company rose 12% to 24 sen yesterday on high volume of some 32 million shares.

Year-to-date, the stock is up 17%, outpacing the wider market which is up 0.5%.

The company made a net profit of RM167,000 in its most recent quarter ended Oct 31, against quarters of consecutive losses as the eurozone crisis hit its largest export markets.

As at Oct 31, Takaso's bank borrowings stood at slightly less than RM8mil, while its cash and cash equivalents totalled RM19.7mil.

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