Kim Loong hopes to pay higher dividend

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PETALING JAYA: Kim Loong Resources Bhd hopes to reward shareholders more in the second quarter, following its 23 sen dividend pay-out in its first quarter ended April 30, 2008.

“We paid 18 sen dividend for the whole of FY08 (ended Jan 31), and for the first quarter of FY09, we already paid out a higher dividend of 23 sen,” its managing director Gooi Seong Heen told reporters after its AGM here yesterday.

The company’s dividend yield is 8%, and its net cash position is between RM70 million and RM80 million.

On another matter, its chairman Gooi Seong Lim said the company was looking to carve a niche in the food supplements market by being a provider of quality Vitamin E capsule.

“We plan to sell the Vitamin E soft gels in bulks for export. We will export 80% of our products and are looking at the United States and Japan,” said Seong Lim.

Towards this end, the company has commissioned a RM10 million plant to produce tocotrienal concentrate (a type of Vitamin E) in January this year. The plant in Kota Tinggi is expected to start production by next year. It has an annual capacity of three tonnes.

He said, however, the company had yet to venture into the production of food such as margarine.

Seong Lim also said that Kim Loong was positive and comfortable despite the recent decline in crude palm oil futures below RM3,000 a tonne.

“It is a temporary phenomenon. Demand would pick up during the festive seasons in a few monthsember. Furthermore, vegetable oil supply is tight and the soybean stock is uncertain,” he said, adding that the company has locked in 25% of its total production until December at the price of RM3,400 per tonne.

Kim Loong, which has a landbank of 12,000 hectares, is looking at acquiring plantations and land in east Malaysia. It is currently building its third mill in Sabah.

Saying that the company is not ready to go into Indonesia, Seong Lim said the company would like to have joint ventures with the local people in Sabah.

“They own a lot of undeveloped land and some of the land is near our existing development. We would try to explore and work with the locals. They (the locals) actually have no capital to develop. They need companies like us to come in with working capital to help them to develop the land on a JV basis,” he said.

Kim Loong is also looking at developing plantations in Sarawak.

On the issue of windfall tax, Seong Heen said Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) was appealing to the government on the matter.

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