24th Apr 2019 14:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC on Wednesday lowered its total payout for 2018, as profit and revenue dipped in the year due to a significant drop in the price of crude palm oil.
The Malaysian palm oil and rubber maker posted pretax profit of USD30.9 million, down sharply from USD69.7 million the year before, on revenue that declined by 14% to USD250.9 million from USD291.9 million.
Excluding an adjustment made for a biological asset, pretax profit for the year would have been USD33.2 million, still lower from USD70.0 million.
The revenue drop was mostly due to a fall in the price of crude palm oil as a result of high inventory in the market. The average crude palm oil price ex-Rotterdam in 2018 was USD595 per metric tonne, 17% lower from USD718 per tonne in 2017.
Crude palm oil production rose by 7% to 418,000 metric tonnes from 390,600 metric tonnes in 2017, while the production of fresh fruit bunches increased by 12% to 1.04 million tonnes from 929,600 tonnes the prior year.
Anglo-Eastern Plantations declared a dividend for 2018 of 3.0 US cents per share, down 25% from 4.0 cents the year before.
Post-period, fresh fruit bunch production for the three months to the end of March was 3.0% higher compared to the same period in 2018.
The company expects its overall production cost in 2019 to rise due to rising material costs and the Indonesian government increasing minimum wages.
"Nevertheless, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the group is confident that CPO demand will be sustainable in the long-term and we can expect a satisfactory trading outturn and cash flow for 2019," said Executive Director John Chuan.
Shares in Anglo-Eastern Plantations remained flat at 520.00 pence each on Wednesday.
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