Felda Global Ventures Seeking Buyers for its NA Crushing and Refining Businesses

Malaysia-based Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) is reportedly seeking buyers for its crushing and refining businesses in the U.S. and Canada as the company shifts its focus to its core palm oil plantation business.

Earlier this year Felda announced it would be divesting some of its peripheral assets in order to refocus on its core business, and analysts have been speculating that the group will be selling its Canadian canola and soybean crushing operation, which reported a pretax loss of US$21.9 million in 2014 after being hit by falling North American crush margins, according to its annual report.

FGV’s 2012 initial public offering (IPO) was the largest of the year, raising US$3.3 billion, but the stock has not climbed since, instead dropping 12% this year. The group has operations in both upstream and downstream palm oil, rubber, grain and oilseeds, rubber, and logistics across ten countries spanning Asia, North America, and Europe, however last month it announced a 98% decline in its first quarter net income due to lower palm oil prices. The company claims downstream operations have experienced losses due to blizzards throughout the month of January and tighter soybean crush margins, resulting in underperformance in its oliochemical segment.

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