December 15 2004 - CONSTRUCTION company Ahmad Zaki Resources Bhd (AZRB) isdiversifying into oil palm plantation following its acquisition of 95 percent equity in PT Ichtiar Gusti Pudi IGP for 17 billion rupiah (100 rupiah= RM0.04).

IGP, a dormant company in Indonesia, has a location permit for thecultivation of palm oil on a 12,760ha at Kecamatan Ngabang and SengahTemila in Kabupaten Landak. It also has a "hak guna usaha" certificate ona 7,739.76ha there.

AZRB signed yesterday a shareagreement with the vendors of IGP toformalise the acquisition.

"The acquisition will allow the group (AZRB) to diversify into oil palmplantation with reasonably sizeable area in order to achieve the economicscale of production in a lower cost production region as compared toMalaysia.

"The group intends to create recurring nature of revenue to its revenueportfolio on a longer term basis and thus reduce the risk of overdependency on the performance of construction sector which is experiencingslower growth domestically," AZRB said in its filing to Bursa MalaysiaBhd.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by June 30 2005 or at a laterdate as may be mutually agreed upon by vendors and AZRB.

AZRB said it will finance the purchase through internally-generated funds.

It said the acquisition will not have any effect on its issued and paid-upcapital and earnings of the group for the current financial year endingDecember 31 2004.