SINGAPORE — Net profit at Wilmar International Ltd. increased 35% to $434.7 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, driven in large part to stronger performance in Oilseeds & Grains and Tropical Oils.
Revenue for the quarter increased 4% to $11.61 billion, up slightly from $11.13 billion compared with the same period of last year, supported by higher sales volumes across all of the group’s businesses.
“Performance of the new processing plants we have invested in the past years, especially in China, Indonesia and India continues to improve and this has helped us achieve the current good set of results,” said Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and chief executive.
Together with a strong set of results in the first half of 2018, the group achieved a 49% increase in core net profit to $970.1 million for the nine months, up from to $650.8 million in the same period of last year. Overall net profit increased 21% to $927.1 million while revenue grew 4% to $33.57 billion.
The Oilseeds & Grains segment registered another positive quarter with pretax profit increasing 17% to $296.9 million, up from $252.8 million compared with the same period last year. The company noted the improvement was due to strong crush margins with higher volume and good performance from Consumer Products.
“We expect most of our operations to continue to do well in the coming quarter, due to generally better processing margins,” Khoon Hong said. “Overall, we are cautiously optimistic that performance for the rest of the year will be satisfactory.”
Wilmar’s business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oils refining, sugar milling and refining, manufacturing of consumer products, specialty fats, oleochemicals, biodiesel and fertilizers as well as rice and flour milling. At the core of Wilmar’s strategy is an integrated agribusiness model that encompasses the entire value chain of the agricultural commodity business, from cultivation, processing, merchandising to manufacturing of a wide range of branded agricultural products. It has more than 500 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia and some 50 other countries. The group has a multinational workforce of about 90,000 people.