KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): Having decided to close its oil palm farm-sharing investment scheme, Golden Palm Growers Bhd (GPG) has appointed financial consultant Grant Thornton Consulting Sdn Bhd to conduct a tender exercise for its 11,280-acre estate in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

"Grant Thornton will conduct a public tender exercise commencing from June 30, 2018 for a period of six weeks with a further two weeks to evaluate the tender bids," GPG, a unit of unit of Australian Securities Exchange-listed Sterling Biofuels International Bhd, said in statement today.

"Due to the confidential and price sensitive nature of such a public tender exercise, the management company will not during this period be issuing any statements, until the close of the public tender and its bids evaluated," it added.

Last year, GPG chairman Datuk CRS Paragash said the asset in Kelantan could fetch a valuation of around RM220 million.

Launched in 2010 and regulated by the Companies Commission of Malaysia, GPG is an investment scheme that allowed potential investors to participate and own oil palm plots without the hassle of becoming a smallholder planter.

In 2007, GPG was granted a 90-year concession by Perbadanan Pembangunan Ladang Rakyat Negeri Kelantan to develop, manage and maintain the oil palm plantation in Gua Musang.

GPG had created 44,000 grower plots with respect to the 11,280 acres, of which 39,600 were offered to the public.

The investment cost started from RM7,000 per plot in 2010 to RM9,600 currently.

As at Aug 20, 2017, a total of 26,550 grower plots (60.3%) had been sold to investors, while the remaining 17,450 (39.7%) plots are retained by GPG. To date, GPG is reported to have pocketed RM212.4 million, which was poured by more than 1,500 investors into the scheme.

Last October, investors were shocked when GPG terminated the 23-year collective investment, after seven years of operation, with another 16 years to go until the scheme reaches the maturity period.

At a general meeting held on Oct 2, 2017, 98% of 1,358 investors voted to allow GPG to find a buyer for the Kelantan asset within one year, as opposed to an immediate sale, as investors looked for the best way to recoup their monies that have been poured into the scheme.

GPG's premature termination of the oil palm farm-sharing scheme comes four years after the early termination of Country Heights Growers Scheme, Malaysia's first oil palm farm-sharing investment scheme.