Astra Agro to sell non-CPO units

Astra Agro to sell non-CPO units

JAKARTA: Indonesian crude palm oil producer PT Astra Agro Lestari said Tuesday it expects to finish the sale of its non- crude palm oil units by the end of the third quarter of this year.

"We want to finish the sale of the cocoa, tea and rubber units by the third quarter of this year," Astra Agro's vice president director, Benny Tjoeng, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Astra Agro has 12 such units in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan islands.

Tjoeng said the total size of the plantations for sale is around 24,000 hectares. The plan to sell its units is aimed at focusing on its core business, the crude palm oil industry, he added.

He declined to reveal how much money Astra Agro will raise from the sales.

The daily Tempo newspaper Tuesday quoted Astra Agro director Juliani Eliza Syaftari as saying the company would likely raise up to US$35 million from the sales.

Astra Agro is 63.9 percent owned by Indonesian auto group PT Astra International.

Late last year, the car manufacturer said it had signed an $850 million debt-restructuring deal with its creditors, which included the sale of assets such as its stake in the plantations group. However, the parent company later said it doesn't plan to sell its shareholding in Astra Agro, which it considers to be a valuable asset. -- Dow Jones