24th Apr 2018 14:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC on Tuesday lifted its final dividend as annual revenue and profit increased on higher production.
The Malaysian palm oil and rubber maker posted a pretax profit of USD69.7 million for 2017, up 15% compared with USD60.9 million the year before, as revenue grew 19% to USD291.9 million from GBP246.2 million.
Excluding an adjustment made for a biological asset, the pretax profit for the year increased to USD70.0 million from USD57.5 million, the company said.
Administrative expenses rose year-on-year to USD8.6 million from USD6.7 million and finance costs were up slightly to USD1.8 million from USD1.7 million.
Revenue growth was driven by due primarily to higher crude palm oil production and price, Anglo-Eastern Plantations said.
Crude palm oil production rose 11% to 390.6 million tonnes from 353.1 million tonnes in 2016, while the average price grew 2.0% to USD718 per tonne from USD706 per tonne.
Fresh fruit bunches production also increased 4.0% to 929.6 million tonnes from 897.7 million tonnes the year earlier. In the three months to the end of March, Fresh fruit bunches production rose 4.0% year-on-year, the company said.
The group declared a final dividend of 4.00 cents per share, up from 3.8 cents paid the prior year.
Looking ahead, Anglo-Eastern Plantations said that it expects an increase in the overall production cost in 2018, after the Indonesian government hiked minimum wage 8.7%. Capital expenditure is also estimated to grow to USD41.6 million from USD27.4 million in 2017, as a result of a range of sustainable investments.
In addition, the company estimated crude palm oil price to be in the range of USD600 to USD700 per tonne for the first half of 2018.
"Nevertheless, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the group is confident that crude palm oil demand will be sustainable in the long term on the backdrop of global economic recovery and we can expect a satisfactory trading outturn and cash flow for 2018," said Executive Director John Chuan.
Shares in Anglo-Eastern Plantations were trading 1.3% higher at 770.00 pence per share on Tuesday.
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