KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): FGV Holdings Bhd said it has been granted a further six-month extension until Sept 2 by Bursa Securities to comply with the public shareholding spread requirement.

This marks the sixth time the plantation group has received an extension from the regulator to comply with the requirement.

In an exchange filing on Tuesday, FGV said its public shareholding spread remained at 13.09% as of Feb 16, compared to the minimum requirement of 25%.

FGV said it is fully aware of the potential consequences of non-compliance with the requirement, which may lead Bursa Securities to take action against the company, including suspending trading in its shares.

It said it will continue to make quarterly announcements on the status of its rectification plan to Bursa Securities in an effort to comply with the public spread requirement.

On June 30 last year, FGV announced a bonus issue to address the public shareholding spread. On Feb 13, the group said it had applied for a further extension of time until Aug 13 to issue its bonus issue circular.

The extension application was submitted under the request of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), which owns an 81.9% stake in FGV.

The bonus issue involves the issuance of 364.8 million new redeemable preference shares (RPS-i) on the basis of one RPS-i for every 10 existing FGV shares.

Felda plans to pare down its stake in FGV after the completion of the bonus issue, to comply with the shareholding spread requirement, FGV said when announcing the corporate exercise.

Shares in FGV ended down one sen or 0.70% at RM1.43 on Tuesday, valuing the group at RM3.65 billion.