Rajawali to expand plantation, eyes bourse

The investment company Rajawali Group is planning to expand its palm oil plantations to 250,000 hectares from 40,000 hectares in the next 5 years and will list its plantation firm on the Indonesia stock exchange (IDX) in 2011.
`Now we have planted 40,000 hectares of palm oil while 100,000 hectares are ready to be cultivated. We target to expand our plantations to 250,000 hectares in the next 5 years,` Rajawali Managing Director Dardjoto Setyawan told reporters recently in Jakarta.

According to Dardjoto, Rajawali has plantations in four provinces -East and South Kalimatan, as well as Papua and West Papua.

Dardjoto said the company spent US$3,500 per hectare to develop its plantations.
`We finance 50 percent of our plantation from our internal budget, while the rest comes from bank loans,` he said.

He said that the company would be able to go on the IDX when it had about 100,000 hectares of CPO plantations.

The company, which has a 24.9 percent stake in state cement producer PT Semen Gresik, has focused on palm oil plantations since 2005.

`Indonesia is the biggest CPO producer in the world. However, we are still lacking enough CPO supply,` Dardjoto said.

To support the plantations in producing CPO, Rajawali also plans to build CPO factories.
However, Dardjoto did not give further details on its plans, except saying that one CPO factory already existed in South Kalimatan, capable of producing 60 tons per hour.

`So far, 10,000 hectares out of *the initial* 40,000 hectares have been producing CPO,` Dardjoto added.

Rajawali Group is an investment company which is active in various economic sectors. Besides plantations, the company has also businesses in property and mining.

The company now is trying to get a stake in Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton's operation in Indonesia, by joining the bidding for shares.

`Rajawali intends to take over the shares with its own funds, and does not plan a joint takeover with other companies,` Darjoto said.

It was reported that as many as 25 companies were joining the bidding for shares in BHP Billiton's operation in Kalimantan, from which BHP is divesting.

Source : The Jakarta Post