BUMITAMA Agri reported a net profit of 874 billion rupiah (S$74.7 million) for the third quarter ended Sep 30, up 33 per cent from 655 billion rupiah the year prior. This marked the Indonesian palm oil producer’s first period of year-on-year improvement on a rising trend in its quarterly performance.

It also meant that its year-to-date (YTD) performance gap – compared to the previous year’s record-high performance – is narrowing, said the group in a business update on Tuesday (Nov 14).

Revenue for Q3 FY2023 rose 20 per cent to 4.3 trillion rupiah from 3.6 trillion rupiah in the same period a year ago, driven by contributions from crude palm oil (CPO) sales and palm kernel (PK).

Over Q3, Bumitama said that its fresh fruit bunches (FFB) yield hit a record high in July 2023 as its productivity averaged higher. FFB yield for Q3 rose 3 per cent from the same quarter the year prior, but was 7 per cent lower over the nine-month period compared to the same period a year ago.

While CPO booked its first year-on-year positive in average selling prices (ASP), it declined for the first time when compared to the previous quarter. Within the PK segment, Bumitama noted that the market conditions for lauric oils remained “uneventful” due to the surplus of substitutes. The segment’s ASP declined a slight 1 per cent versus Q3 FY2022. 

The group’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) climbed 29 per cent on the year to 1.6 trillion rupiah from 1.3 trillion rupiah in Q3 FY2022. Ebitda margin for the quarter strengthened to 37.6 per cent. This is considerably higher than the group’s 29.7 per cent average in the past 40 quarters, noted Bumitama.

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For the nine months ended September 2023, the group’s net profit fell 27 per cent year on year to 2.1 trillion rupiah from 2.8 trillion rupiah. Revenue declined 6 per cent to 11.8 trillion rupiah from 12.6 trillion rupiah in the first nine months of FY2022. The group said this came as volume increase in CPO sales was mostly offset by a fall in ASPs, while PK “did not fare well” due to the still-soft market conditions for laurics oil.

FFB yield over the nine-month period was down 7 per cent year on year.

ASPs for CPO and PK fell 12 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, versus the levels in the nine-month period for FY2022.

Ebitda fell 27 per cent on the year to 3.7 trillion rupiah from five trillion rupiah. While Ebitda margin declined 8.9 per cent to 31.2 per cent from 40.1 per cent the prior year, the group noted this was higher than its 30.4 per cent average over the past decade. 

As at end-September 2023, the group had a planted area of about 187,000 hectares comprising nucleus estates covering 131,000 hectares and 56,000 hectares of plasma estates. The average age as at Jan 1, 2023, stood at 13.3 years.

Shares of Bumitama : P8Z 0% closed last Friday down S$0.01 or 1.7 per cent at S$0.57.