SINGAPORE (Nov 14): Golden Agri-Resources reported an 80% fall in 3Q earnings to US$43.7 million ($59.5 million) from US$219.7 million a year ago on the absence of recognition of deferred tax income on revaluation in the previous period.
Revenue fell 2.9% to US$1.8 billion but cost of sales fell 4% to US$1.5 billion. This resulted in gross profit of US$289.5 million, up 3.0% from a year ago.
Underlying profit -- defined as earnings excluding changes in fair value of biological assets and depreciation of plants, plus other non-operating items such as forex gains/losses and tax-based asset revaluations -- rose 3% to US$79 million.
Plantations and palm oil mills delivered 3Q17 EBITDA of US$134 million. Palm and laurics recorded EBITDA of US$43 million with a margin of 2.8%.
The oilseed business contributed EBITDA of US$8 million during the first nine months of 2017 with a margin of 1.6%.
Golden Agri says for the nine months to Sept, plantation output has recovered strongly after the 2015 El Niño and crude palm oil (CPO) market price continues to be robust.
Franky Widjaja, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Agri, says: “GAR has delivered resilient results in the first nine-month period of 2017 and this should support the Company’s full year performance. CPO market prices have been robust and we are optimistic that they will remain stable for the rest of the year.”
The board has declared an interim dividend of 0.693 cent per share.
Shares in Golden Agri closed at 40 cents on Monday.
