Sri Lanka Watawala Plantation profits up; palm oil supports bottom-line

Oct 28, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said it made a profit of 141 million rupees in the September 2015 quarter, up 354 percent, compared with 31 million rupees in the same quarter last year, supported by palm oil segment. The firm reported earnings of 55 cents per share for the quarter, the company said in its interim accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange. In the three months to September revenues declined from 1,799 million rupees to 1,585 million rupees while cost of sales also reported a decline of 21 percent to 1,330 million rupees. Gross profits improved to 235 million rupees from 113 million rupees. The company said palm oil made a significant contribution to company’s profitability, having made a net profit of 436 million rupees for 2QFY16 compared to 421 million rupees recorded in the comparative quarter last year.

Palm Oil segment registered a revenue growth of five percent year on year to reach 865 million rupees in September quarter, primarily due to increase in Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production, the company said. However the tea segment reported a net loss of 243 million rupees compared to net loss of 200 million rupees reported in the comparative period last year.

The revenue for the period was 1.9 billion rupees compared to 2.

5 billion rupees recorded in 2QFY15. The decline in the tea sector performance is mainly due to decrease in production compared to the same quarter last year. “Company continues to enhance the quality of its teas in order to gain a price advantage, while continuing to increase the palm oil yield,” Vish Govindasamy, Managing Director of Watawala Plantations told shareholders in the report. “Biennial wage negotiations are currently underway as the collective agreement between the Plantation Companies and Trade Unions lapsed on 31st March 2015.” The rubber segment which only accounted for 0.8 percent of the total revenue in 2QFY16 report at a net loss of 28 million compared to 41 million recorded in the same period last year, the report showed.