IOI to integrate palm oil businesses

IOI Corp, Malaysia’s second-biggest listed palm oil producer, will invest RM300 million integrating various palm oil businesses to form a new Johor-based company, executive chairman Lee Shin Cheng said in a prepared speech in Kuala Lumpur today.

The new company will commercialize IOI’s in-house technology in enzymatic inter-esterification processing of the edible oil, he said. The businesses being integrated are involved in oleochemicals, specialty fats and lipid nutrition.

IOI is separately investing RM400 million on using this technology to produce hardstocks for the margarine and bakery industries in Rotterdam, where it has its biggest European refinery, Lee added. - Bloomberg