KUALA LUMPUR: Boustead Plantations Bhd’s net profit surged to RM435.16mil in the first quarter ended March 31, against RM12.22mil a year ago on disposal gain and higher palm product price.
The planter recorded a pretax and zakat of RM509.5mil. This includes a gain on disposal of Kulai Young land of RM364.1mil.
“Excluding the gain, the operational unaudited profit before taxation and zakat of RM145.4mil surpassed RM19.3mil achieved in the corresponding quarter last year.
“The better result was attributable to the higher palm product prices paired with improved fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production,” it said in the notes accompanying its financial results.
Boustead Plantations’ revenue surged 88.5% to RM324.1mil from RM171.9mil
in the corresponding quarter last year due to an increase in palm products prices and FFB production which led to the profit from operations of RM151.3mil.
The average crude palm oil (CPO) price for the first quarter of RM6,030 per tonne was 61% higher than last year’s corresponding quarter of RM3,751 per tonne.
It said the highest monthly average CPO price of RM6,780 per tonne was recorded in March 2022 which surpassed last year’s highest monthly average CPO price of RM5,159 per tonne was recorded in November 2021.
Palm kernel’s average price of RM4,655 per tonne was higher by RM2,135 per tonne.
Boustead Plantations said FFB production for the quarter of 195,882 tonnes was 9% higher than the production in the first quarter of 2021 of 180,165 tonnes, contributing a yield of 2.9 tonnes per hectare as compared with 2.7 tonnes per hectare in the same quarter last year.
It has declared a first interim single-tier dividend of 7.3 sen per share in respect of the period ended Dec 31, 2022.
The dividends will be paid on June 24 to shareholders registered in the register of members at the close of business on June 9.
On its prospects, Boustead Plantations said the group’s profitability is mainly driven by CPO price, crop production, Plantation Performance Improvement Programs (PPIP) and Boustead Group’s Reinventing Boustead strategy.
It said both PPIP and Reinventing Boustead strategy are currently progressing as planned.
“Prices of palm oil are expected to remain strong for the remaining second quarter of 2022 in respect of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict and the tightness of CPO production that would dampen the increasing demand for edible oil.
“However, the sentiment on Indonesia lifting the ban on the export of palm oil products will add bearishness to the palm oil prices,” it said, adding that palm oil supply is expected to improve over the second half of the year due to the easing of labour shortages with the entry of foreign workers back to Malaysia.
“The group is encouraged by the bullish price trend and encouraging crop production in the first quarter of 2022. The group will remain focused on PPIP to further improve productivity in the coming quarters to take advantage of the strong CPO price. PPIP's main initiative is on mechanization and digitalisation, in line with the Boustead Reinventing Strategy. The group expect to realise more benefit in the coming months from effort on mechanisation,” it said.