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.