26th Apr 2016 15:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Palm oil and rubber producer Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC Tuesday reported a swing to a pretax loss for 2015, as a drop in crude palm oil prices hit its revenue.
The company reported a pretax loss of USD19.1 million, swung from a pretax profit of USD51.2 million the year before, as revenue declined to USD196.5 million from USD251.3 million, and it recognised a biological asset adjustment of USD64.1 million.
Stripping out this asset adjustment pretax profit fell to USD45.0 million from USD85.0 million.
Anglo-Eastern said it produced 900,400 metric tonnes of fresh fruit bunches in 2015, up 5% from 857,400 metric tonnes in the previous year. It said that the harvest at Kalimantan exceeded expectation, which helped offset lower production from other established regions in North Sumatera, Riau and Bengkulu which were adversely affected by four months of drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Despite the increase in crop and crude palm oil production, revenue and profitability suffered as crude palm oil prices hit a 7 year low, the company said. The average crude palm oil Rotterdam price in 2015 was 25% lower than in 2014 at USD613 per metric tonne, compared to USD815 per metric tonne.
Additionally, the Indonesian rupiah depreciated against the dollar, which contributed to the fall in revenue.
Despite challenging market conditions, Anglo-Eastern said it has continued to invest in developing new assets, planting 3,416 hectares of oil palms in 2015, of which 1,590 comprised of replanting. This was less than planned, which the company attributed to delays in finalising agreements with villagers for land compensation payments.
Anglo-Eastern declared a final dividend of 1.75 pence, down from 3.0 pence the year before.
Shares in Anglo-Eastern were up 0.2% at 506.00 pence Tuesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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