Business

Friday October 19, 2012

TH Plantations may sell Riau estates for RM3.95bil


Indonesia’s Borneo Pacific president director reportedly bidding for the RM3.95bil deal

PETALING JAYA: TH Plantations Bhd may be selling the company's plantations in the Indonesian province of Riau to Indonesian-based unlisted company PT Borneo Pacific in a deal worth US$1.3bil (RM3.95bil).

According to a Reuters report, Indonesian businessman Alexander Thaslim, the president director of Borneo Pacific, was bidding for what possibly might be the largest contiguous plantation concession in Indonesia.

Thaslim had been negotiating to buy the 83,879-ha spread across 36 plantations in Riau province opposite Singapore on Sumatra island since 2011, the report said.

A source told Reuters the deal, codenamed Project Thor, might be completed by next month. The newswire said the company was also discussing a debt-financing scheme with several Indonesian and Singaporean banks. To-date, about US$300mil (RM911.1mil) have been raised in equity.

TH Plantations and Thaslim declined to comment for the report, according to Reuters.

According to the report that cited presentation documents relating to the deal, TH Plantations owned 95% of the Riau plantations and in April this year signed a conditional share-purchase agreement with PT Borneo.

A total of 73,650 ha of the estate area had been planted while other assets included six mills, a kernel crushing plant and biomass power plant, the newswire stated.

Credit Suisse was financial advisor for the deal, Reuters said.

The bank said PT Borneo would buy TH Plantations' 95% stake for US$910bil (RM2.76bil) and was expecting to buy the remaining 5% owned by PT Primasakti Rizki Pertiwi.

“Including other transaction-related expenses, the total purchase consideration is expected to be up to US$1.3bil (RM3.95bil),” a Credit Suisse investor presentation cited by Reuters stated.

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