Brokers' take

Golden Agri-Resources | Sell (maintained) Feb 27 close: S$0.28 Target price: S$0.23 RHB Research Institute, Feb 27

Golden Agri's earnings reversed further into the red in Q4, with the FY2018 core net loss coming in significantly below expectations. While we believe 2019 will be a better year after an extremely weak 2018, we expect earnings to take some time to recover to its previous base of more than US$200 million. This will likely be after its landbank is revamped via aggressive replanting and cost management.

FY2018 core earnings reversed further into the red, with USS$91.3 million of losses from a profit of US$40 million in FY2017. This was significantly below expectations, and was mainly due to lower crude palm oil prices, and weaker refining margins.