KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Plantation Bhd plans to reduce its stake in its 100% owned New Britain Palm Oil (NBOL) to between 51% and 60% – three years after taking full control of the Papua New Guinea company.

Sime Darby Plantation had been approached by several funds but it had not made any decision as yet.

Its executive deputy chairman and managing director Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh said on Thursday the company would prefer that it would be a strategic investor in Papua New Guinea.

In October 2014, Sime Darby Bhd – before the demeger – launched an offer to buy all of Kulim (Malaysia)  Bhd’s 48.97% stake in NBPOL at £7.15 a share.

In March 2015, it had completed its acquisition of NBPOL, bringing its total land bank to almost one million hectares spread out over five countries.

The plan was to focus on integrating the operations of both companies over the next few months as NBPOL was a strategic fit with its track record on sustainability.

Sime Darby Plantation is a founder member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and together with NBPOL’s capacity, it can produce almost 26% of the global CSPO output.

The acquisition added on 135,000ha of land in Papua New Guinea to SDP’s total land bank.

The offer valued NBPOL at about RM84,000 on an Enterprise Value per hectare, which is comparable to recent industry acquisitions