Hot demand at Malaysia palm oil giant listing

Palm oil giant Felda Global Ventures Holdings' IPO has been massively oversubscribed amid hot demand for the world's second-biggest listing this year after Facebook. The institutional portion of the initial public offering has been oversubscribed by more than 30 times, Dow Jones Newswires reported Tuesday. The share sale is expected to raise more than $10 billion ringgit ($3 billion). Felda Global issued a price range of 4.00-4.65 ringgit per share for the sale of 2.19 billion shares, it said. Institutional subscription will close Wednesday and an announcement on the pricing is expected to be made later in the day. The Malaysian government is floating Felda Global in a bid to turn it into a global commodities player, part of a larger push to divest state-run firms. Analysts said they expected strong demand for the shares, a rare bright spot amid negative sentiment elsewhere, especially following the sensational flop of social media leader Facebook's listing last month. The retail share issue was priced at 4.55 ringgit ($1.43). Retail pricing closed Tuesday. CIMB and Maybank, joint global coordinators for Felda's listing, declined comments when contacted. Underpinning the issue's prospects are a strong outlook for fast-growing palm oil demand and the Malaysian government's strong backing for the listing and Felda Global's development plans. Felda Global is the world's third-largest oil palm plantations operator, and is an arm of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), a government agency that provides land to rural poor. A June 28 target date has been set for the palm oil, rubber and cocoa producer's debut on the Kuala Lumpur exchange.