Anuar new substantial shareholder of Wijaya Baru

PETALING JAYA: Wijaya Baru Global Bhd’s substantial shareholder Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has sold his entire stake in the group to Anuar Adam, who heads the Maxcorp group of companies.

A Bursa Malaysia filing showed that Anuar had on Thursday bought a 30.88% stake in Wijaya Baru from the Sarawakian tycoon for 95 sen per share, which works out to about RM84.08mil in total.

A local English daily reported recently that Anuar, a ex-army major, was believed to be backed by a group of powerful Indonesian businessmen.

Wijaya Baru recently received shareholders’ approval to buy two companies, Wealthgate Pte Ltd from Hafiz Arief and Suffolk Pte Ltd from Adwir Boy, for US$80mil (RM251mil). Both Hafiz and Adwir are Indonesians.

Wealth Gate and Suffolk have 80,000ha in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Wijaya Baru plans to start logging operations in the area next year.

On Oct 3, Wijaya Baru told Bursa that a valuation report showed the estimated income receivable for the extractable timber from the area was RM872.7mil a year for six years, based on an average log price of RM450 per cu m and an extractable volume per year of 1.94 million cu m.

Wijaya Baru would need about RM20mil to RM30mil to put operations in the area onstream.

The acquisitions would be funded with internal funds, bank borrowings or fund raising exercises.

In explaining its rationale for the acquisitions, Wijaya Baru said its last timber licence had expired on July 9, 2010.

“In view of the loss of revenue from the timber division, the proposed acquisitions would provide an immediate and stable income stream for its core business and, at the same time, allow the group to expand its business regionally.”

This would also provide an an opportunity for Wijaya Baru to venture into oil palm cultivation in the future.

The completion of the proposed acquisitions was subject to risks such as a failure to obtain approval from Indonesian authorities for the extraction of timber in the area, and this is where Anuar could use his reputed sizeable influence in Indonesia.