16th May 2016 09:22
LONDON (Alliance News) - Equatorial Palm Oil PLC Monday said its loss was slightly wider in the first half of its current financial year as it continues to focus on building a new plant under its joint venture in Liberia.
The palm oil production firm operating in Liberia said its pretax loss was wider in the six months to the end of March after amounting to USD507,000 compared to the USD439,000 loss booked a year earlier after booking a loss on its investment in Liberian Palm Developments Ltd, the joint venture firm holding its main assets.
The company managed to reduce administrative costs to USD412,000 from USD458,000 and managed to book in a small amount of maiden revenue totalling USD86,000 in order to report an operating loss of USD326,000 compared to the USD458,000 loss last year.
However, Equatorial Palm Oil booked a USD457,000 loss from its investment in Liberian Palm Developments, which was significantly wider than the USD245,000 loss from investments reported a year ago.
The 50:50 joint venture housed under Liberian Palm Developments is with Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad and the pair have decided to construct a palm oil mill capable of processing 60.0 metric tonnes of ore per hour at the venture's Palm Bay estate.
The plant will be constructed in two equal 30.0 metric tonne per hour units, the first of which will cost USD20.0 million and is expected to be operational in 2018. The funding for the second unit will be sought later on.
Cash at the end of March stood at USD458,000 at the end of March from USD987,000 at the end of September 2015.
Equatorial Palm Oil shares were down 3.5% to 1.40 pence per share on Monday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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