Boustead Plantations Aims to Acquire Over 11,000 Hectares of Land

KUALA LUMPUR, August 22, 2017 – Boustead Plantations Berhad (BPB) today announced the proposed acquisition of 42 parcels of plantation land in Sabah, amounting to a total of approximately 11,600 hectares.

The Group issued a letter of intent (LOI) to Pertama Land & Development Sdn Bhd for the proposed acquisition of the land, located within the district of Labuk and Sugut, Sabah, for an indicative cash consideration of RM750 million.

Following the acceptance of the LOI by Pertama Land & Development Sdn Bhd, the Group will conduct a due diligence exercise within a period of 30 days.

YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, Vice Chairman, BPB, said, “This is indeed an ideal opportunity to expand our land bank with viable plantation land to complement our existing operations in Sabah. We are excited about the potential value that this sizeable land acquisition will bring to the Group, as part of our ongoing strategy to strengthen our earnings potential and enhance our prospects. We look forward to moving ahead with this corporate exercise.”

In a separate announcement, the Group approved a variation to the utilisation of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) proceeds, in conjunction with its listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on 26 June 2014. The Group raised total gross proceeds of RM928 million through its IPO, of which RM420 million was allocated for the acquisition of plantation lands. As disclosed in its prospectus, if the total amount allocated was not utilised within 36 months from the Group’s listing, the unutilised amount would go towards repayment of the Group’s existing bank borrowings.

To date, the Group has utilised RM63.8 million of the IPO proceeds to acquire beneficial interests in plantation lands in Sugut, Sabah. As such, the Group will reallocate the balance of RM356.2 million towards part or full repayment of bank borrowings for past acquisitions of plantation lands.

Should the Group’s proposed acquisition of approximately 11,600 ha of plantation land in Sabah materialise, the payment of the purchase consideration is expected to be made in 2018 upon completion of the exercise, which will then be funded by internally generated funds and/or bank borrowings.

Forward looking statements
This release may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial conditions, results of operations and business of the Group and certain plans and objectives of Boustead Plantations Berhad with respect to these items. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

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