24/12/2005 (The Star Online), Serdang - Plentiful Gold-Class Bhd, which manages Country Heights Growers Scheme (CHGS), a collective oil palm growing initiative, will deliver an 8% payout nett yield to its participating planters next month.

A total of RM12mil will be paid to 8,700 local and foreign investors by the end of January 2009.

“CHGS will continue to pay 8% next year and thereafter is confident to deliver commendable returns,” Country Heights Holdings Bhd’s founder and deputy chairman Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew said at a briefing yesterday.

In January this year, the company paid 3,452 growers their first year dividend payout of 8%.

The scheme, which was launched about two years ago, was initiated by Lee.

Lee said todate, 90% of Plentiful’s 36,000 plots had been sold and had generated total revenue of almost RM200mil.

The scheme allows investors to buy plots of lands from Plentiful.

To a question, Lee said investors would be able to get “some profit” if crude palm oil (CPO) stays above RM1,000 per tonne.

On Plentiful’s expansion plan, he said the group has plans to start a second project but was not in hurry to launch it yet.

“We already have the land but we will like to wait before starting a second scheme. We want to show investors a track record and prove that we can deliver the guaranteed return of 8% per annum during the first three years,” Lee said.

The company had also bought land in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, where oil palm planting could commence in 18 months.

“We are currently in an acquiring mode. We are on the lookout for raw lands of 5,000 acres and above. We might consider buying if the price is right at about RM3,000 per acre or lower,” Lee said.

Apart from oil palm, Lee is also considering planting other agriculture products.

“I am considering planting jagung (corn). I am testing it at my own backyard now. But (to) commercialise, I have to get the land first,” he said, adding that he also planted dragon fruits, guava and tapioca in his backyard.