MP Evans Group PLC (AIM:MPE) said it has snapped up more land planted with oil palm close to its Simpang Kiri estate in Indonesia for a total of US$14.3mln.
The group said it has acquired 100% of two Indonesian companies that own a combined 2,100 hectares of fully titled land with long leaseholds established with the Indonesian government, with some of the acquired areas needing to be replanted in the near term to bring them up to group standards.
Following the purchase, the group now owns 4,800 hectares around Simpang Kiri, which is situated in the north of Sumatra, and had previously been too small to have its own mill.
But the company said there was now potential to build a palm oil mill there, having last month completed construction of its sixth palm-oil mill, in South Sumatra.
In a statement, MP Evans' executive chairman Peter Hadsley-Chaplin said the acquisitions were made at a good price and, combined with the added scale it gives the group in the area, the additional hectares are “further fuel for the MP Evans growth engine”.