Unico-Desa

A court victory over a disputed parcel of prime plantation land in Sabah and a record pre tax profit of rm103 million for the latest financial year.

The High Court ruled in favor of the company in a suit brought by the ACCCIM which had claimed rights to roughly half od Unico-Desa’s plantation acreage. However, ACCCIM maintains it is the right owner of the roughly 17000 acres of land in Unico-Desa books, has decided to appeal against the High Court’s decision.

Unico-Desa’s MD Teoh through his investment vehicle ELK Group Sdn Bhd holds 29.65% stake. In 2004, he led Unico-Desa, which was then a pure plantation firm, to diversify into the hire purchase business. The diversification drew strong criticism from some members of Unico Holdings Bhd which is also a substantial shareholder in Unico-Desa with a 29.59% stake.

Unico-Desa has proposed to reorganize the group which calls for the public listing of the hire purchase division on the Main Board.

Under the proposed demerger exercise, shareholders would be entitled to the shares in ELK-Desa Resources Sdn Bhd on the basis of one ELK-Desa share for every 10 shares held in Unico-Desa.

Shareholders are also entitled to the offer for sale of 13.49 million shares.

The demerger would allow shareholders to have choices. Those who prefer a pure plantation firm could sell shares in ELK-Desa and put more money in Unico-Desa.

The company’s hire purchase business focuses on used car purchase. It currently (May 2012) accounts for about 20% of Unico-Desa pre tax profit.

The group wants to focus on improving the efficiency of the group’s plantation business, which is dominated by oil palm.



Unico-Desa embarked on an ongoing replanting initiative to ensure sustainable yield and productivity. About 37% of the company’s total planted area is covered with trees aged between 16 and 20 years while 27% is in the range of 11 to 15 years. The young trees aged less than four years make up about 16% of the planted areas.



After the demerger, Unico-Desa will go back to the old days when it was a pure plantation firm.