First Resources to buy remaining shares of Indonesia-listed Austindo Nusantara Jaya it does not own

[SINGAPORE] First Resources will buy the remaining shares of Austindo Nusantara Jaya after its acquisition of a 91.2 per cent stake in the Indonesia-listed company, the palm oil producer said on Monday (Aug 25).

It will purchase around 6.2 per cent of the issued and paid-up share capital of Austindo Nusantara Jaya, an Indonesian Stock Exchange-listed company primarily engaged in the palm oil plantation business.

On Mar 18, First Resources’ majority-owned subsidiary Ciliandra Perkasa entered a conditional agreement to acquire a 91.2 per cent stake or around 3.1 billion shares of Austindo Nusantara Jaya for US$329.8 million.

This proposed acquisition was completed on May 6.

Upon the completion of the transaction, First Resources is obliged to make a mandatory tender offer to purchase the balance shareholdings in Austindo Nusantara Jaya.

This amounts to a maximum of 8.8 per cent of the group’s issued and paid-up share capital or around 296.2 million shares.

From Aug 26, 2025, to Sep 24, 2025, First Resources will conduct the mandatory tender offer to purchase some 207.6 million of Austindo Nusantara Jaya shares, which represents a stake of around 6.2 per cent.

This excludes around 88.5 million of Austindo Nusantara Jaya shares that were acquired by Ciliandra Perkasa through the open market at prevailing market prices for a total cash consideration of 157.94 billion rupiah (S$12 million) or around US$9.7 million.

The offer price under the mandatory tender offer is 1,813 rupiah per share, which is the same as the price for the earlier acquisition.

Beyond the palm oil plantation business, Austindo Nusantara Jaya is a holding company for several subsidiaries that operate in the production and sale of palm oil and other sustainable food crops, alongside renewable energy.

In March, First Resources said that the proposed acquisition “presents a rare opportunity for the group to expand its upstream oil palm plantation footprint and enhance feedstock availability for its growing downstream operations”.

It said that the transaction would boost its hectarage by around 25 per cent and reinforce its position as a regional palm oil producer.

The company said then that it expected the additional production from the palm oil plantations and crude pail oil (CPO) mills acquired under the transaction to boost its CPO output by 25 per cent, to 1.25 million tonnes.

This increase would enhance the certainty and reliability of feedstock supply for its 1.35 million tonnes of refining and processing capacity, it added.

Shares of First Resource finished Friday unchanged at S$1.76.