KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): Sime Darby Bhd’s wholly-owned unit, Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, is shortening the period of its takeover offer for the UK and Papua New Guinea-listed New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL), by one month. The closing date for the offer is now being pushed forward to Feb 23, from March 20 previously.

In an announcement with the local bourse today, Sime Darby (fundamental: 1.3; valuation: 1.3) said the Securities Commission of Papua New Guinea (PNG) had on Feb 6, consented to the shortening of the offer period for NBPOL.

"The offer will now close on Feb 23, instead of March 20," Sime Darby said.

"As the condition with respect to the European Union (EU) merger filing, as provided in Section 12.1(d) of the Offer Document, had been satisfied on Jan 27, 2015, Sime Darby Plantation is of the view that the extension of the offer period secured through the second notice of variation issued on Jan 6, 2015, is no longer necessary," the group added.

Accordingly, Sime Darby said the offer period has now been shortened to 124 days, from 149 days, ending on Feb 23.

"The offer will remain open for acceptances until 5.00 p.m (PNG time) on Feb 23, 2015, if acceptances are received within PNG; or 1.00 p.m (UK time) on Feb 23, 2015, if acceptances are received within the UK," Sime Darby said.

Meanwhile, in a separate filing, Kulim (M) Bhd (fundamental: 0.65; valuation: 1.2) said it will continue to update its shareholders of any further material developments in connection with the disposal of its 48.97% stake in NBPOL.

To recap, Sime Darby had in October last year, proposed to buy the entire stake in NBPOL for GBP7.15 a share, or a total of GBP1.07 billion (RM5.62 billion) cash. The acquisition include Kulim’s stake.

Sime Darby closed unchanged at RM9.53 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM59.19 billion. Kulim gained 10 sen or 3.29% to close at RM3.14, translating into a market capitalisation of RM4.04 billion.

(Notes: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)