Olam's Q1 earnings tumble on exceptional items

Singapore

AGRIBUSINESS group Olam International - which has changed its financial year-end from June 30 to Dec 31 - on Friday reported a net profit of S$31.3 million for its first quarter ended March 2015, 92.1 per cent down from the year-ago period's S$396.1 million.

Explaining the sharp fall in the profit after tax and minority interests (Patmi), the soft commodity trader said the January-March quarter had a net exceptional loss of S$97.2 million, resulting mainly from the buyback of bonds. This was against an exceptional gain of S$293.9 million for the year-ago period stemming principally from the revaluation of its stake in PureCircle Ltd. The bond buyback is expected to generate interest savings of about S$55-60 million per year over the next three years, the group said.