07/06/2011 (Share Cast) - Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) has announced a US$4.4m loss before tax for the year to the end of 31 December 2010, which it said was in line with expectations.

The palm oil development company, which has operations in Liberia, said $1.3m of that loss was attributable to non-recurring costs associated with listing on the AIM market in February last year.

The listing raised £6.5m and came on top of a $60m joint venture with BioPalm, which is designed to provide long term equity funding, effective from February this year.

EPO said the outlook for the global palm oil market was positive, with strong growth in demand driving a significant increase in crude palm oil prices recently.

Crude palm oil rose from $805 a tonne at the start of January 2010 to $1,200 a tonne in May 2011, the firm said.

EPO added that it had a strong net cash position at the end of the year with $6.8m in the bank, having repaid all its outstanding loans.

Michael Frayne, executive chairman of EPO, said the company was sticking to its ‘ambitious goal’ of achieving 50,000 hectares of plantations within 10 years.