10th Aug 2015 11:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - Equatorial Palm Oil PLC Monday said it has signed an agreement with the National Port Authority of Liberia to lease land so it can build a palm product export facility at the port of Buchanan.
The company signed the agreement through its operating subsidiary, LIBINC Oil Palm Inc, so it can build the export facility at the port, which lies around 24 kilometres away from Equatorial Palm Oil's Palm Bay estate.
The 4.5 acre site is in close proximity to the wharf where vessels will load the company's produce to ship to customers. The company will truck its produce from Palm Bay to the port of Buchanan, where it will store its produce in a tank which it intends to build at the site.
Over time, Equatorial Palm Oil will build the tank to have a capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes of palm oil.
In the meantime, the company will immediately begin building the perimeter fencing to delineate the leased land.
"The storage facility is a key infrastructure asset for the successful export of the company's oil palm products. We are delighted to have this lease agreement now in place which further de-risks our operations," said company Director Geoffrey Brown.
Equatorial Palm Oil said it held discussions with authorities for over two years to secure the deal, which is for a 25 year term with the option to extend it by a further 13 years.
Equatorial Palm Oil shares were down 4.3% to 3.35 pence per share on Monday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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