SINGAPORE (Yosefardi) – Golden Agri-Resources Ltd (GAR) registered net profit of US$131 million in first half of 2014, declined 17% from US$158 million in the same period of 2013.
Revenue increased 27% to US$3.95 billion from previous US$3.1 billion. For second quarter ended June 2014, GAR’s net profit dropped 40% to US$27 million while revenues rose 21% to US$2.04 billion.
GAR’s upstream plantation business achieved better performance year-on-year with first half EBITDA of US$331 million, an increase of 42% over first half last year and second quarter EBITDA of US$160 million, an increase of 59% over the corresponding quarter. The improvement was driven by increasing palm product output and average crude palm oil (CPO) prices.
At the consolidated level, GAR’s performance was weaker, attributable to the downstream operations of palm and lauric as well as oilseed businesses.
As at end of June 2014, GAR’s total planted area under management was 470,600 hectares, comprising 370,000 hectares of nucleus plantations and remaining 100,600 hectares of plasma smallholder plantations.
Year-on-year fresh fruit bunch production strongly grew by 15% to 4.73 million tons while the mature area increased by 11,000 hectares during the first half of 2014. Palm product output for first half 2014 also increased at the same rate to 1.45 million tonnes from 1.26 million tonnes for the same period last year.