KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 12): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has sold its entire stake in IJM Plantations Bhd amounting to 109.67 million shares or a 12.45% stake in the company to Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) on Oct 7.

In a Bursa Malaysia filing on Tuesday (Oct 12), the group said EPF had disposed of its entire stake due to “tender of shares for takeover event”. 

At KLK's offer price of RM3.10 per share, the fund would have pocketed RM339.97 million from the sale.

Based on the latest group’s annual report, prior to the disposal, EPF was the second-largest shareholder of IJM Plantation, behind parent company IJM Corp Bhd, who holds a 56.2% stake in the plantation company. 

However, on Sept 6, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK)  emerged as the controlling shareholder of IJM Plantations, when the former completed the acquisition of a 56.2% stake in the company from IJM Corp for RM1.53 billion.

KLK then had obliged to extend a mandatory general offer (MGO) to acquire the remaining stake in IJM Plantations at RM3.10 per share. The takeover notice was served on the board of IJM Plantations on Aug 30.

Meanwhile on Sept 30, minority shareholders of IJM Plantations Bhd have been advised to accept the takeover offer by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) for the rest of the shares in IJM Plantations for RM3.10 per share.

According to the independent adviser, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga IB), the offer is deemed fair, as the RM3.10 offer price represents a premium of between 9.5% and 18.8% over the range of estimated value per IJM Plantations share derived using the discounted cash flow method of between RM2.61 and RM2.83.

KLK intends to maintain the listing status of IJM Plantation, unless it receives valid acceptances pursuant to the proposed MGO and/or acquires further shares resulting in its holding a stake of at least 90% in IJM Plantation and/or if the latter fails to meet the 25% free float.  

IJM Plantations boasts a total planted area of 61,277 hectares across Sabah and Kalimantan.

With the acquisition, KLK’s total oil palm planted area has risen by 28.7% to 274,688 hectares, from 213,411 hectares at end-September 2020.

Shares in IJM Plantation rose one sen or 0.32% on Tuesday to RM3.11, valuing the plantation group at RM2.74 billion.