Halcyon

Halcyon: lifts halt at 8.30am. Halcyon has agreed to acquire assets of Malaysian natural rubber producer Chip Lam Seng group for RM 63m. The latter operates two natural rubber factories in Ipoh, Msia, with a combined annual pdtn cpacity of 180k tons. This establishes Halcyon as a major producer of natural rubber in Indonesia and Msia, and lifts its total capacity to more than 300k tons. Mgt notes the Chip Lam Seng factories are ideally located, well-designed and modern, and look forward to revitalizing their operations and realizing their full potential. Sees significant scope to realize value from this acquisition, with the application of its expertise in raw material sourcing, increasing the production of higher grades of rubber, applying Halcyon’s business model to secure resilient margins and leveraging on its sales and marketing expertise to reach targeted top tier customers. Furthermore it views the Chip Lam Seng acquisition as an ideal platform from which to explore Msian investments. The acquisition will be financed through internal resources, bank borrowings and/or fund raising exercises, and is expected to be complete in 4Q13.