Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 25): Boustead Plantations Bhd (fundamental: 1.4; valuation 1.8) plunged into red in its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4QFY14), with a net loss of RM965,000, as opposed to a net profit of RM298.27 million in 4QFY13, due to lower palm product prices and fresh fruit bunches production.

Revenue also declined 33% to RM167.16 million in 4QFY14 compared to RM249.53 million in 4QFY13, due to a drop in the average selling prices of crude palm oil (CPO) in the last quarter of FY14 (CPO was RM2,183 per tonne, 9% lower than RM2,407 per tonne in 4QFY13), its filing to Bursa Malaysia today showed.

The weaker financials notwithstanding, the group has declared a dividend of 2 sen per share for the quarter, to be paid on March 30, 2015, bringing its total dividend declared for FY14 to 6 sen. For FY13, the group had paid out a dividend of 72.28 sen per share.

For its full year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14), Boustead Plantations reported a 82.8% drop in net profit to RM57.16 million, from RM333.16 million in FY13; revenue was down 6.9% to RM717.32 million, from RM770.28 million in FY13.

The drastic earnings drop was mainly due to the absence of exceptional items, which contributed to the group’s profitability in FY13, such as the gain on disposal of plantation lands amounting to RM92.8 million, fair value gains on deemed disposal of investment securities of RM136.8 million, and a special dividend income from Boustead Real Estate Investment Trust (BREIT) of RM53.8 million.

In a separate press statement, Boustead Plantations vice chairman Datuk Seri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said the group will work on improving its operational efficiency.

“We will strengthen our resolve to improve operational efficiency, with a view to enhancing yields for both CPO and palm kernel (PK) for the coming financial year. Of course, we will be mindful of CPO price trends, which will be impacted by external factors such as crude oil prices, stock levels and import quotas by key international markets,” he said.

Its counter closed unchanged at RM 1.45 today, giving a market capitalisation of RM2.32 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

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