‘Felda’s success not limited to financial performance’

KUCHING: The success of Malaysia’s leading oil palm plantation company, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd ( FGV), should not be evaluated based merely on its financial performance.

Chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad said it should be viewed from bigger aspects such as an improvement to existing operations, long term investments, the strengthening of human capital and corporate social responsibility.

He said if seen holistically since FGV was listed in 2012, a lot of achievements had been recorded by the company, among them, an increase in the non-leased land, production of various world class planting material through research and development and establishing the crude palm oil trade division supported by assets.

To date, FGV has increased its non-leased land to 45,000 hectares in Sarawak, Sabah and Kalimantan (Indonesia).

In addition, Isa said FGV had also expanded operations to overseas, enhanced renewable energy production, developed human capital and improved plantation operations as well as that of its plants.

“FGV is now the largest producer of crude palm oil, the biggest operator globally of the bulk storage of edible oil, the world’s third largest operator of oil palm plantations, the biggest Malaysian producer of refined sugar and many more strengths in the business network chain it possesses,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Isa said from the aspect of financial performance, FGV posted a decline since its listing due to the movement of global palm oil prices, the profile of its ageing trees, aggressive replanting process, fluctuating global crude oil prices and weak biodiesel demand.

The price of raw sugar globally also had an indirect impact on FGV through its 51 per centowned subsidiary, MSM Holdings Bhd.

“In other non-financial matters, FGV has seen sufficiently good changes. This basic strengthening will indirectly build a more sustainable company in the future,” he added.

On the FGV shares, Mohd Isa said the price at present is much lower when compared to the listing due to the influence of weak market sentiment, resulting from the actions of certain parties politicising issues related to the company.

“The issues caused FGV shares to become unstable compared to other plantation companies in Malaysia,” he added.

He said FGV was also often the focus of certain parties as it had ties to the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) with both chaired by him previously.

“It is still the perception of the community that FGV is a company under Felda. Misunderstandings frequently happened in connecting FGV with any activities undertaken by Felda. — Bernama