Wilmar buys Natural Oleochemicals for $140mln

The agribusiness company said the steady growth of the oleochemical industry is due to sustained economic development and increased global demand for an eco-friendly functional product.

Wilmar International Limited's 100% subsidiary PGEO Group Sdn. Bhd (PGEO) has signed a sales agreement dated 21 July, 2010 to acquire 91.38% of Natural Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd (Natoleo) from Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad (Kulim), for a cash consideration of RM 450,000,000, a Wilmar release said.

Based in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Natoleo is said to be one of the world’s largest oleochemicals producers with significant market share in Europe and Asia and a growing presence in USA. Its products such as glycerine, soap noodles, fatty acids, and esters are widely used in diverse industries such as detergents, home care, cosmetics and toiletries, plastics, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food additives, grease and lubricants, paints and coatings, rubber and latex and polyolefins.

According to the announcement, the reason behind the investment is that the oleochemical industry is experiencing steady growth due to sustained economic development and increased global demand for an eco-friendly functional product which is viewed as a sustainable alternative to petrochemical products.

Natoleo’s well-established customer networks in Europe, USA and China are complementary to Wilmar’s, and its sizeable product portfolio and strength in high value-add downstream products enhances the company’s growth in oleochemicals, the release said.

The remaining 8.62% of Natoleo will be owned by the National Land Finance Co-operative Society, an independent third party.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia