KUCHING: Rimbunan Sawit Bhd’s vice-chairman Tiong Kiong King has sold his entire direct shareholding in the oil palm plantation company.
Tiong, 71, directly owned 11,011,500 shares or 0.78 percent as at April 1, 2019. He aggressively disposed off the shares over the past six months in the open market until he sold all the shares on Oct 17.
As at April 1, 2019, Tiong has indirect interest of 6,218,400 shares or 0.44 percent via Biru-Hijau Enterprise Sdn Bhd in Sibu-based Rimbunan Sawit. Through several disposals, he has cut his indirect stake in Biru-Hijau to 3,788,200 shares or 0.267 percent with the latest sale of 200,000 shares on Nov 12, according to Rimbunan Sawit’s filings with Bursa Malaysia.
Subur Tiasa Holdings Bhd also disposed of 5,021,300 shares in Rimbunan Sawit from Nov 4 to 6.
Rimbunan Sawit’s single largest shareholder is Tan Sri Diong Hiew King @ Tiong Hiew King, with total stake of 57.86 percent (April 1).
Despite registering increasing group revenue, Rimbunan Sawit has suffered huge losses for four consecutive years since 2015, when it reported group net loss of about RM67.18 million.
The losses widened to RM75.73 million in 2016 and RM157.59 million in 2017. In 2018, the losses were
RM148.7 million.
The group revenue has surged to RM338.69 million in 2018 from RM184.2 million in 2015.
For first half ended June 30, 2019 (H1-2019) Rimbunan Sawit continued to bleed, with losses of RM35.55 million on revenue of RM117.69 million.
Rimbunan Sawit group owns 17 palm oil estates across Kuching, Sibu and Miri regions with total land bank of 77,427 hectares at end-2018, down from 90,940 hectares in 2017 following the disposal of the Simunjan estate (15,017 hectares) and acquisition of Sastat estate (1,504 hectares).
The group’s total planted area stood at 48,765 hectares or 63 percent of its land bank. About half of the estates’ palm age are prime mature, followed by about 25 percent under old mature.
According to company executive director Tiong Chiong Ong, the group has replanted 1,266 hectares since 2014.
The group owns three palm oil mills, two of them in Miri Division and the third in Lundu.
Tiong said the group’s focus is on improving its fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield with continuous streamlining of its operations and head office function.
“With renewed efforts in manpower recruitment and proper rationalisation initiatives, the group expects recovery in our productivity and operating margin,” he said in the company’s 2018 annual report.
Meanwhile, Rimbunan Sawit share price has recovered from last month’s low of 12 sen to 17.5 sen on Tuesday, boosted by the overall positive market sentiments as crude palm oil (CPO) prices rallied to two-year high of RM2,600 per tonne on Tuesday from low of RM1,937 per tonne in July. Over a 52-week period, Rimbunan Sawit share hit a high of 29 sen in April.
In H1-2019, Rimbunan Sawit group’s CPO production fell by 1.4 percent to 47,525 tonnes from 48,207 tonnes in H1-2018 while FFB production dropped by 9.1 percent to 139,894 tonnes from 153,856 tonnes during the same period. Palm kernel production was lower by 4.6 percent to 10,237 tonnes.
The group recorded sharp drop in average selling price of CPO to RM1,905 per tonne from RM2,334 per tonne
(-18.4 percent) during the same period. Average selling price of FFB plunged by 25.5 percent to RM331 per tonne from RM444 per tonne while that of palm kernel was down by a whopping 39.8 percent to RM1,116 per tonne from RM1,854 per tonne.
