Malaysia's Felda Global Ventures Posts a Net Profit in 1Q

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Malaysian palm-oil producer, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. (5222.KU), said Wednesday it posted a net profit of 2.47 million ringgit (US$577,486) for the first quarter ended March versus a net loss of MYR81.08 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The world's third-largest palm plantation operator attributed the better on-year performance to higher average crude palm-oil prices and related products' price realized in the first quarter of 2017, according to notes accompanying its local stock exchange filing.

Revenue rose 15.1% to MYR4.32 billion during the quarter from MYR3.76 billion a year ago.

Felda Global said its board expects performance of the company to be satisfactory this year.

Felda Global's group president and chief executive officer Zakaria Arshad said the company expects average crude palm-oil price to decline slightly with the increase in fresh fruit bunches output from both Malaysia and Indonesia in the coming months.

"We expect average CPO (crude palm-oil) price to be around RM2,550 per metric tonne to RM2,750 per metric tonne for the second half 2017," he said.

Nonetheless, Malaysia's overall production this year is estimated to be lower than 2015, in view of acute labour shortages that could moderate the bearish CPO price outlook, according to Mr. Zakaria.

Shares of Felda Global ended the morning trade session 5% lower at MYR1.71 per share prior to the earnings release. The stock has climbed more than 15% year-to-date.

--Write to Yantoultra Ngui at yantoultra.ngui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 31, 2017 02:05 ET (06:05 GMT)