Malaysia’s armed forces pension fund will offer to buy the shares of its palm oil unit Boustead Plantations Bhd. it doesn’t already own, after ending an agreement for a potential takeover by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd., the country’s third largest listed palm oil firm.
Boustead Plantations gained as much as 11% after trading resumed Thursday, while KLK reversed early declines to trade little changed.
LTAT will make a general offer at 1.55 ringgit per share, according to a statement Wednesday. The proposed price is the same as in the now-scrapped agreement with KLK. The fund will refocus its efforts on restructuring the company to ensure it gets back on a stronger financial footing and chart a better business horizon, LTAT’s statement showed.
KLK and LTAT were in talks to restructure the agreed deal so that the pension fund would keep control of Boustead Plantations, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The original agreement would have seen the planter acquire a 33% stake in Boustead Plantations from LTAT for 1.15 billion ringgit ($243 million) and make an offer to buy out the other shareholders.
LTAT directly owns a 10.6% stake in Boustead Plantations and indirectly controls 57.4% via its Boustead Holdings Bhd. unit. The state-owned pension fund took Boustead Holdings private and delisted it in June. Boustead Holdings will refund a 229 million ringgit deposit to KLK, the palm oil firm said in a Bursa Malaysia filing late Wednesday.
--With assistance from Anisah Shukry.
(Updates with share price movements in second paragraph.)
