As the dust settles on the controversial Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) listing, the winners and losers emerge.

WINNERS

Miti-approved investors

The largest portion of the shares was allocated to institutional investors, particularly the Ministry of International Trade and Industry approved bumiputera investors who were allocated 11.5 percent of total shares. The Miti-approved investors who cashed out at the share’s peak stood to pocket returns of RM1 per share.

Collectively, the investors could have made an astounding RM410 million. The fact that share prices have plunged since then suggests that many, if not all institutional investors had indeed made a killing from the initial rally.

Most of the shares, however, were for other institutional investors including overseas investors. The largest holder of FGV shares outside of Felda, however, is Lembaga Tabung Haji which holds about roughly eight percent of shares.

EPF trails close behind at just under eight percent. It has been seen actively trading its FGV shares since the lock in period expired late December. Bucking the trend by purchasing after the prices started to tumble in late July 2012, EPF has been criticised for garnering paper losses of at least RM75 million.

FGV

A commercial arm for Felda’s overseas ventures, FGV has turned profits from its plantation interests, but bled out to the tune of hundreds of millions through several of its overseas endeavours.

Much of its plantation profits were derived from subsidiary Felda Holdings, which in the first half of 2011, prior to listing had a turnover four times that of FGV.

This lent credence to initial speculation that it was Felda Holdings which would be listed, and not FGV. Instead, FGV piggy-backed on Felda Holdings into a lucrative listing.

Watershed agreements inked in the lead up to the listing beefed up the slender Felda entity, and made it a global CPO player almost overnight. From managing about 8,000ha of Felda plantations, FGV now looks after 347, 584 ha of land, giving it direct access to an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of CPO. Its turnover prior to listing was RM4.2 billion but ECM Libra estimated that the agreement could close to triple its turnover by the end of 2013.

The listing resulted in proceeds to FGV of a cool RM4.4 billion. A relatively small portion, RM260 million, was used to pay off debts in its unprofitable North American venture.

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