Kuala Lumpur Kepong to Buy Stake in Boustead Plantations

Malaysian palm oil firm Kuala Lumpur Kepong is buying a stake in smaller peer Boustead Plantations from conglomerate Boustead Holdings, according to local media The Edge and New Straits Times on August 24. Boustead Plantations shares, worth $3 billion ringgit ($646.27 million), were suspended from trading on Thursday pending an announcement.

According to Refinitiv data, Boustead Holdings owns 57.4 percent of Boustead Plantations, followed by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera, Malaysia's military pension fund, which owns 10.6 percent. Boustead Plantations' stock has risen 112.4 percent year to date.

Boustead Holdings Berhad is a Malaysian conglomerate that employs over 16,000 people across 80 listed and non-listed companies in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. It is a Malaysian military affiliate.

In Malaysia, the Division operates 44 oil palm estates and 10 oil mills, performing the full range of oil palm operations such as planting, replanting, harvesting fresh fruit bunches, and producing crude palm oil and palm kernels. Our total land bank is approximately 98200 hectares, with 73,500 hectares under cultivation. The Division's primary activities are property development and investment, hotel management (through the Royale Chulan hotel chain), project management, and the manufacture and distribution of cellulose fibre cement products.