KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): FGV Holdings Bhd topped Bursa Malaysia’s most active list and rose among leading gainers in morning trade today after the plantation group said yesterday it had received an unconditional mandatory takeover offer notice at RM1.30 a share from the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), which intends to delist FGV from the local bourse.

FELDA’s takeover offer for FGV became unconditional after the collective FGV shareholding of FELDA and persons acting in concert with it rose past 50%.

As at 10.30am today, FGV was trading at RM1.28, up 10 sen, with 91.86 million shares changing hands.

FELDA said in the filing with Bursa yesterday that it had completed the proposed share acquisition announced on Dec 8. Its shareholding in FGV had increased to 50.49% from 36.61% previously. Hence, the conditional mandatory takeover offer, which was also unveiled on Dec 8, is now an unconditional offer.

FELDA stated in the latest announcement that it does not intend to maintain the listing status of FGV, which was listed in 2012 at an initial public offering (IPO) price of RM4.55. Prior to this, FELDA announced that it wanted to terminate the land lease agreement with FGV and acquire its palm oil mills, but it kept silent on its plan to take the plantation company private back then when it announced the share purchases from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) and Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd to consolidate its shareholding.

At the offer price of RM1.30 a share, FGV is valued at some RM4.75 billion based on its issued share capital of about 3.65 billion.

"News of the mandatory takeover of FGV at RM1.30/share may see some trading activities,” Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd analysts wrote in a note today.

Yesterday, FGV said in a Bursa filing that pursuant to the Securities Commission Malaysia’s (SC) rules on takeovers, mergers and compulsory acquisitions, an independent adviser will be appointed by FGV's board to provide comments, opinions, information and recommendations on the offer.

The notice said FELDA is obliged to extend the takeover offer after acquiring an aggregate 506.19 million shares, which represent an approximately 13.88% stake in FGV for RM658.05 million from both KWAP and Uruusharta Jamaah.