Malaysia's Felda to buy 37 pct of Eagle High from Rajawali for $680 mln -exec

by **Cals** Mon 15 Jun 2015, 01:16

Malaysia's Felda to buy 37 pct of Eagle High from Rajawali for $680 mln -exec

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

By Reuters / Reuters | June 12, 2015 : 4:25 PM MYT

JAKARTA (June 12): Malaysia's [size=14]Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Financial Dashboard) plans to buy 37 percent of Indonesia's PT Eagle High Plantations Tbk from Rajawali Group for around $680 million, a Rajawali executive said on Friday.

The world's third-largest palm plantation operator plans to pay for 30 percent in cash and will issue new shares to acquire the other 7 percent, the executive said, declining to be identified ahead of a formal announcement.

Felda will also buy 95 percent of Rajawali's sugar project for around $67 million, he said.

Eagle High shares soared as much as 12 percent to seven-month-highs earlier in the day after media reports had flagged that a deal was in the works but later pared gains to trade around 2 percent higher.

Felda, which has said it plans to expand its land bank in Malaysia and Indonesia, could not be reached for comment. Shares in the Malaysian company are suspended from trading pending a material announcement.

Rajawali, which is controlled by Indonesian tycoon Peter Sondakh, has been trying to raise money through asset sales. The group had agreed to sell a 51 percent stake in taxi operator PT Express Transindo Utama Tbk to PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya Tbk, Saratoga said in April.

Late last year, Rajawali also tried to raise up to 4.6 trillion rupiah ($374 million) from an initial public offering of its gold mining unit, PT Archi Indonesia, but had to shelve the offering due to weak investor interest.

Rajawali owned 65.5 percent of Eagle High through PT Rajawali Capital as of December 2014, according toThomson Reuters data.
[/size]