SINGAPORE — Wilmar International Limited reported on Feb. 18 that its Oilseeds and Grains segment saw a pretax profit surge 98% to $689.8 million for fiscal year 2015 that ended on Dec. 31, 2015.
The company said the growth was driven by higher volume and better margins for the soybean crushing and consumer products businesses.
Sales volume for Oilseeds and Grains increased 19% to 23.6 million tonnes for 2015.
“The group performed satisfactorily for the full year, in spite of the challenging environment, particularly for palm oil,” said Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and chief executive officer. “Healthy growth was achieved in various key business segments such as oilseeds, flour, rice, consumer products, specialty fats and sugar. In an environment where macro factors are expected to remain challenging, we believe our resilient business model and vertical integration, supported by our healthy balance sheet, will allow us to continue to do reasonably well.”
The pretax profit for the group for 2015 was $1.42 billion or $16.60 earnings per share, down 7.1% from $1.53 billion or $18.10 earnings per share.
Revenue for the group fell 12% to $9.43 billion in the fourth quarter and declined 10% to $38.78 billion for the year, mainly due to lower commodity prices but partially offset by strong growth in sales volume, the company said. The group’s total sales volumes for 2015 grew 10% to 65.3 million tonnes.