December 26, 2003

 

 

Comsa Farms Eye Poultry Expansion in Asia

 

Comsa Farms Bhd, a Malaysian-based poultry and egg supply company, is eyeing the huge Asian market as it plans for business expansion.

 

Its director, Datuk Kour Nam Ngum said at present, Comsa had established itself within the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area) region and, southern Philippines and Sarawak, which has a combined population of 46 million people.

 

He said the market within the Muslim-dominated region was expected to grow further in view of its status as a major halal-food supplier.

 

Comsa is also involved in other areas such as small plantations involving cocoa and oil palm.

 

"The company will also work towards introducing new industries," he said after the transfer of Comsa from the Second Board to the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Wednesday.

 

Also present were the company's board of directors.

 

For transfer exercise, the company offered a total of 75.04 million ordinary shares at an issue price of RM1.00 each.

 

The counter opened at RM1.16, for a premium of 16 sen with 1,000 shares traded.

Kour said the Comsa Group was in the midst of listing its wholly owned subsidiary, which he declined to name, on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX).

 

The listing on the SGX, he said, would indirectly raise the value of its Malaysian companies.

 

"The core operation of our subsidiary in Singapore will be feedmill. We have a feedmill plant in Tawau," he said.

 

At present, it has 33 farms in Sabah, producing an average 200 million eggs annually and in poultry, producing between six and nine million birds per year.

 

He said the annual average egg consumption in Sabah was about 169 per person and 300 per person in Peninsular Malaysia.

 

Comsa supplied about 40% of the eggs, he added.

 

Meanwhile, its other director, Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mustaffa Babjee, said farms located in Sabah were not far from southern Philippines and Kalimantan.

 

As such, these locations contributed to the high demand for eggs and poultry products, he said.

 

Kour said Comsa had allocated RM180 million to facilitate the company's expansion programme over the next 10 years.

 

The expansion would increase the company's production capacity by 30%, he said.