10/04/2012 (The Star) -  Boustead Holdings Bhd, which derives most its income from plantations, expects to improve its yields on fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by 20% to 30% using more efficient methods.

Currently, Boustead's overall FFB yields are at 17.8 tonnes per ha against the industry average of about 18.5 tonnes.

The improvement in yields together with firm crude palm oil prices were expected to help the group perform “even better” than this year, deputy chairman and group managing director Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said.

Lodin: ‘My personal target is to
have a pre-tax profit of RM1bil
this year.’

For the financial year ended Dec 31, Boustead achieved pre-tax profit of RM831mil, net profit of RM610.6mil and revenue of RM8.6bil.

“My personal target is to have a pre-tax profit of RM1bil this year,” Lodin told reporters after the company AGM.

Apart from the plantation division which contributed 41% to profits last year, all its other divisions - property, trading and manufacturing, pharmaceutical, heavy industries and finance and investment were also expected to contribute an increase in earnings this year, said Lodin.

He said the group had allocated some RM1.3bil in capital expenditure for this year.

The bulk of this, totalling RM400mil would be spent on the property sector which would include acquiring new land in and around the Klang Valley.

Boustead's major shareholder, Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera was still in discussions with the Government over the acquisition of 60 acres of land in Jalan Cochrane and 245 acres in Jalan Ipoh for development purposes.

The capex would also be for new pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in Indonesia and Vietnam, said Lodin.

The company had not finalise any plan to set up a real estate investment trust.

“But if we do set one up, we would probably inject our own assets among which are a mall and several hotels,” Lodin said.