MAINBOARD-LISTED United Fiber System (Unifiber) yesterday requested a resumption of its share trading on the Singapore Exchange today, after asking for a trading halt on Friday.

The forestry, pulp production and construction firm's request on Friday to suspend trading had followed a report in Bisnis Indonesia on the same day.

Unifiber said the report gave 'confusing and misleading information' on its investment opportunity in Kiani Kertas.

'As far as UFS (Unifiber) is concerned, our immediate priority is to get the Kiani Kertas pulp mill up and running by the end of this month, under the terms of our operational management agreement. We have already secured wood supply for the mill and everything is on track,' chief executive officer Kishore Dass said in a statement.

On Aug 15, Unifiber had appointed Deutsche Bank as the financial adviser on the proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Indonesian pulp mill Kiani Kertas.

Mr Jonathan Paul, co-head of global banking (Asia-Pacific) at Deutsche, said: 'We believe the proposed investment opportunity will further enhance the development of UFS into a key player in the international pulp market.'

Unifiber recently announced that it had secured the supply of one million tonnes of acacia mangium wood from an Indonesian state-owned corporation, Inhutani II. This is significant in that it will provide a steady source of plantation wood to the pulp mill.

On June 25, Unifiber signed a letter of intent with Kingsclere Finance to buy a majority stake in Kiani Kertas.

Last month, it entered into an operational management agreement with Kiani Kertas to operate the pulp mill while the transaction is in process.

Unifiber's stock was last traded at 35.5 cents before it was suspended on Friday.

《The Straits Times》