23.12.2021 (www.thestar.com.my) - PETALING JAYA: FGV Holdings Bhd is planning to raise RM500mil through the sukuk murabahah programme that will be used to refinance its borrowings.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the world’s largest crude palm oil producer said the sukuk will have a tenure of eight years, while each individual issue of sukuk under the programme will have a tenure of one to eight years.

“The proceeds from the sukuk murabahah programme shall be utilised by FGV to refinance its existing financing or borrowing.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the utilisation of the proceeds of the sukuk murabahah programme shall at all times be for syariah-compliant purposes,” it said.

FGV said it had lodged with the Securities Commission (SC) on Monday to establish the sukuk programme, and has received an endorsement from the SC’s Syariah Advisory Council for the programme on Dec 10.

FGV added that the sukuk programme would provide the plantation group with alternative access to funding in the local debt capital market on top of conventional bank borrowings.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd is the principal adviser, lead arranger and lead manager for the sukuk murabahah programme, and Maybank Islamic Bhd is the syariah adviser for the sukuk murabahah programme.

As of September 30, FGV’s borrowings stood at RM3.32bil on the back of cash and cash equivalent of RM1.48bil.

For the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2021, FGV’s net profit almost tripled to RM399.39mil from RM136.89mil, driven by higher crude palm oil (CPO) price and improved performance of its sugar and logistics sectors.

Shares in FGV closed slightly higher yesterday to RM1.49 yesterday.

Despite the stellar quarterly performance, analysts had raised their concerns on FGV’s public spread requirement that had dropped to 13.2%, which is below the 25% requirement for a listed company.

This has raised the risk of the company to be delisted from Bursa Malaysia if the public shareholding spread is not addressed.

Bursa Malaysia has given the time extension until Feb 3 next year for FGV to meet with the requirement.

The shortfall in the public shareholding spread was due to a privatisation bid by Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) in March at RM1.30 per share.

Felda only obtained 81% equity interest in FGV upon the close of the offer, missing the 95% needed to trigger the compulsory share acquisition to take the company private.

“The odds of delisting FGV are high given Felda’s stated intention. The share price of FGV could be supported by the potential privatisation offer by Felda,” said CGS-CIMB Research in a report issues earlier this month.