Malaysia's Sime Darby Q4 profit slides on weak industrial, logistics segments

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's Sime Darby, the world's largest oil palm planter by land size, announced on Friday its fourth-quarter net profit more than halved on weak performances at its industrial, logistics and property segments.

The conglomerate, whose interests include plantations, properties and motors, recorded a net profit of 571 million ringgit (S$181.902 million) for the quarter ended June, down from 1.2 billion ringgit in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter stood at 8.2 billion ringgit, versus 7.7 billion ringgit last year.

Sime Darby is aiming to deconsolidate and list the plantation and property businesses separately by the fourth quarter of the year.

"The group's fresh fruit bunch production is expected to be stronger in the second half of 2017 compared to 2016, due to improved weather conditions," Sime Darby said in a statement.

It said expected crude palm oil prices of between 2,500 ringgit to 2,700 ringgit per tonne and improved production bodes well for the performance of the plantation division.

Benchmark palm oil prices were last down 1.01 per cent at 2,749 ringgit a tonne.

The group reported its quarterly results during the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange's midday break. Its shares were trading 0.54 per cent lower before the break, underperforming the benchmark index which was down 0.4 per cent. REUTERS