KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd could continue to see strong earnings in the final quarter of the year on the back of firm CPO prices although this could be partially offset by higher taxation and a weaker downstream segment.

       Following an expectation-beating performance, Kenanga Research said it expects the plantations group's upstream segment to continue to perform given the expected improvements in fresh fruit bunch (FFB) production and firm 4QFY21 CPO prices.

       The research house raised its FY21-22 earnings forecast by 19%-5% on its projected FY21-22 realised CPO price of RM3,250-2,950 per metric tonne.

       "Maintain 'outperform' but with a lower TP of RM23.60 (from RM24.00), based on a rolled-over FY22E PER of 20x (from 22x), reflecting -1.0SD valuation on additional ~10% ESG discount," it said.

       In 3QFY21, KLK recorded a core net profit of RM392mil, which brought 9MFY21 core net profit to RM960mil.

       This was above Kenanga's and consensus expectations at 83% and 79% of their full-year estimates respecrively.

       9MFY21 FFB output of 2.84 million per metric tonne accounted for 72% of Kenanga's full-year estimate.