This picture taken on February 14, 2017 shows palm oil seeds in Kendawangan, West Kalimantan. Edible vegetable oil is a key ingredient in many everyday goods, from biscuits to shampoo and make-up, and growing demand has led to a boom in the palm oil industry in Indonesia, which is the world's top producer of the commodity. The palm oil industry has been repeatedly accused over the years of failing to protect workers' rights and tearing down protected rainforest to make way for plantations, prompting many companies to pledge greater efforts to improve working conditions and halt deforestation. / AFP PHOTO / Adek BERRY
KUALA LUMPUR: Higher palm products’ selling prices continued to help Genting Plantations Bhd
’s (GenP) quarterly performance, boosting its fourth-quarter (Q4) earnings by 240% and spurring the board to declare a special dividend of 11 sen per share.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the Genting Bhd subsidiary said it earned RM201.9mil in the latest October-December quarter, up from RM59.4mil a year ago.
Revenue advanced 21% year-on-year to RM513.4mil.
The company attributed the better results to the stronger selling prices as well as the higher fresh fruit bunches production from its Indonesian operation, which outweighed the fall in FFB output in Malaysia and the drop in its property sales.
For the entire financial year, GenP’s earnings surged 94% to RM367.5mil on 8% higher revenue of RM1.48bil.
During the year, the group recorded higher selling prices of crude palm oil and palm kernel of RM2,631 per tonne (+24% year-on-year) and RM2,477 per tonne (+60%) respectively.
On the prospects for its plantation activities, GenP said the addition of newly-mature areas and the progress of existing mature areas into higher yielding brackets in Indonesia would remain the major growth drivers as output from Malaysia was expected to be muted amid the intensification of replanting activities.
The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of 8 sen per 50-sen share for the 2016 financial year. It also declared a special dividend of 11 sen per share.
Should the final dividend be approved by shareholders, total dividend (including the interim dividend of 2 sen) for FY16 will amount to 21 sen per share compared with 5.5 sen for FY15.
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