Mentiga in RI venture

Mentiga in RI venture

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia's Mentiga Corp Bhd said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Indonesia's Tradisi Group to develop 25,000 hectares of secondary forest in north Sumatra island into an oil palm plantation.

Tradisi will provide the land and Mentiga will participate through a 90 percent equity interest in a joint company to be formed, Mentiga said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Financing for the joint venture will be raised through internal funds and bank borrowings. The statement did not mention the expected project cost, but the national Bernama news agency said it was estimated at 130 million ringgit.

"Everything would be finalized within the next one month," Bernama quoted Mentiga's executive chairman and chief executive officer Mohamed Ghazali Mohamed Khalid as saying.

Ghazali told reporters on Tuesday that a mill would be erected on the site in three to four years after land clearing.