IndoAgri's Q4 profit dips; revenue up 11.8%

MAINBOARD-LISTED Indofood Agri Resources (IndoAgri) on Friday reported a 0.9 per cent dip in net profit to 225.5 billion Indonesian rupiah (S$23.7 million) for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014.

Revenue rose 11.8 per cent to 4.19 trillion rupiah due to higher sales volume of crude palm oil to external parties.

"2014 was a challenging year for the palm oil industry due to the effects of the global economic slowdown and higher supply of competing vegetable oils, particularly soybean oil.

"Falling crude oil prices also reduced the discretionary usage of vegetable oils for biodiesel production. This has resulted in the decline in international crude palm oil prices denominated in US dollar in 2014. Nonetheless, the average selling prices in rupiah remained higher year-on-year due to a weakened rupiah," the company said.

Earnings fell mainly due to higher finance expenses and a higher effective income tax rate - because of a write-off of expired unabsorbed losses carried forward and non-tax deductible items, it said.

The group's board of directors has recommended a first and final dividend for FY14, details of which to be announced before the end of March 2015. For FY13, it had declared a first and final dividend of 0.52 Singapore cents per share.