22nd Aug 2014 14:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - REA Holdings PLC Friday said it swung to a profit in the first half of the year as a jump in production drove revenue higher, and although it has seen crude palm oil prices weaken in recent weeks, it said it was making progress across its operations.
The crude palm oil producer posted a pretax profit of USD17.1 million for the six months to end-June, compared with the USD2.5 million pretax loss it reported a year earlier, as revenue rose to USD66.4 million, from USD46.3 million.
It harvested a crop of fresh fruit bunches weighing 309,801 tonnes during the half year, up from 265,215 tonnes in the previous year. Revenue was also lifted by improved prices for its crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil, partly because of more normal free fatty acid content compared with the average level it saw in the second half of 2012 and 2013.
It plans to pay a first interim dividend of 4 pence per share for 2014, up from 3.5 pence in the previous year.
REA said it will begin a programme of essential repairs and improvements in its mill operations, and some key works will be completed during the second half.
In its stone and coal operations, the company said that work is continuing on developing a quarry at its stone concession. All of its coal production was suspended following a recent fall in coal prices, although it has retained an agreement with the third part operator of its Kota Bangun concession to resume operations once prices recover.
REA said that the improvement in its operations during the first half of 2014 was encouraging. The company expressed confidence that the recent improvement in its performance can be sustained, although it noted that its profits will remain dependent on the selling prices it achieves.
Share in REA Holdings were trading down 2.3% at 425.00 pence Friday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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