|
The world's biggest instant noodle maker, PT Indofood Sukses
Makmur, plans to enter the biodiesel industry and, as part of the
venture, to acquire 60 percent stakes worth Rp 125 billion (some
US$13.6 million) in three oil-palm plantation firms.
"It's our long-term objective to become one of the players in the
biodiesel industry," company director Thomas Tjhie said after chairing
a shareholders meeting Monday.
"In order to achieve this objective, we need to have more plantation
land under oil palms," Thomas explained.
He said the company intended to expand its plantation holdings from the
current 138,000 hectares to 250,000 by 2015, giving rise to a
production capacity of one million tons of crude palm oil per year.
The shareholders meeting gave its approval for one of the company's
subsidiaries in the edible oils and fats sector, PT Salim Ivomas
Pratama, to buy majority stakes in PT Mentari Subur Abadi, PT Swadaya
Bhakti Negaramas and PT Mega Citra Perdana. The three firms own a total
of 85,541 hectares of plantation land located in South Sumatra, East
Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
Thomas said that his company had already obtained a permit from the
government to produce biodiesel based upon a production of 225,000 tons
of crude palm oil (CPO) per year.
Nevertheless, he said the development of the biodiesel plant would only
commence after the company's entire CPO demand for cooking oil had been
satisfied.
"Currently, our CPO production only covers 50 percent of the total
demand from our cooking oil plant," he said, "It will definitely be
more than five years from now before the biodiesel plant is built."
According to its annual report, Indofood, which gives away a sachet of
palm oil with each packet of noodles, expects its instant-noodle sales
to increase by about 10 percent this year on the back of higher
consumer spending.
Indofood and other companies geared at the consumer market should
benefit from easing inflation, and the fact that the central bank
recently cut its key interest rate for a fifth time since the start of
this year.
Thomas said that in order to fund the expansion of the company's edible
oils and fats business, PT Salim Ivomas Pratama, which is listed on the
Singapore stock exchange, would hold a rights issue some time in the
third quarter of 2007.
"I cannot say anything about the targets of the rights issue, but I can
tell you that we will request approval for it from the shareholders in
December," he said.
Meanwhile, speaking about Indofood's performance in the second semester
of this year, Franciscus Welirang, also a company director, said sales
volume was believed to have increased by 10 percent compared to the
same period last year.
Franciscus said the increase was due to school vacations in the third
and fourth quarters of the year.
In the first semester, the company recorded net sales of Rp 10.1
trillion, an increase of 17.8 percent compared to the same period of
2005, when net sales came in at Rp 8.6 trillion.
The sales increase in the first semester, mostly the result of higher
rice prices, helped the company advance to a net profit of Rp 267.8
billion compared to Rp 14.5 billion in 2005.
|
