Synergy Drive, a palm oil firm created by the merger of three giant plantation companies, will become the largest entity on Malaysia's bourse, a research firm said today.

The new company, scheduled to list next month, will take the place of Maybank, the largest bank in the country, which has a 6.69 percent weighting in the index, RHB Research said.

"If Synergy Drive trades up to our fair value of RM10.15 per share or a market capitalization of RM61.9 billion, the new entity would command an index weight of 8.21 percent," it said.

Synergy Drive is the vehicle merging state-linked firms Sime Darby, Golden Hope Plantations and Kumpulan Guthrie and their subsidiaries in an 11 billion dollar deal that will also create the world's largest listed palm oil firm.

Trading in shares of the three companies will be suspended from Oct 18 in order to facilitate the merger. RHB Research said the combined current weighting of the three is 6.88 percent.

Synergy Drive is expected to have total annual revenue of more than RM26 billion, a workforce of more than 107,000 and combined plantation land of about 600,000 hectares in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The government's investment vehicle, Permodalan Nasional, will control the new firm.