16/02/2012 (Reuters) - PT Perkebunan Nusantara VII, an Indonesian state planter, aims to raise around 1.5 trillion rupiah ($166 million) in an initial public offering in the second half of 2012 to finance its expansion plans, an executive said on Wednesday.

Mardjan Ustha, the firm's production director, said the plan still needs approval from the government and the state's planned plantation holding firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara III.

PTPN VII, which operates in southern Sumatra island, had crude palm oil production of 475,000 tonnes in 2011 and expects output to rise 11 percent to 528,000 tonnes this year, he said.