Bumitama Agri posts 30% fall in Q4 profit

BUMITAMA Agri on Tuesday reported a 30 per cent drop in net profit to 266.4 billion Indonesian rupiah (S$28 million) for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014.

Accordingly, earnings per share fell to 152 rupiah for the quarter, from 216 rupiah a year ago.

"The decrease (in earnings) was due to lower selling prices for both crude palm oil and palm kernel, higher cost of sales, selling expenses, general and administration expenses, other expenses due to withholding tax expenses arising from dividend received by the company from its subsidiary, and loss arising from fair value changes in biological assets," said the palm oil and palm kernel producer.

Revenue rose 20.9 per cent to 1.57 trillion rupiah, mainly due to higher sales volume of crude palm oil and palm kernel.

It declared an interim dividend of 1.30 Singapore cents per share for FY14, a tad higher than the 1.20 cents per share it announced for FY13.

"2015 will continue to be a challenging year for the palm oil industry with slower growth anticipated for the major economies. Nonetheless, the industry fundamentals remain strong as demand for palm oil is expected to increase in line with global consumption growth," the company said.

"The group will continue to increase its production of sustainable palm oil and enhance its operational and cost management efficiency," it said.