Boustead Holdings targets profit growth of 15% to 20
The Star Online (13/04/2018) - PETALING JAYA: Boustead Holdings Bhd image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png targets to grow its normalised profit by 15% to 20% for the financial year ended December 31, 2018.
Previously, in FY17, Boustead registered a normalised profit of RM565mil, after removing the one-off gain of RM555mil from the sale of 678 ha.
Speaking at the group’s general meeting yesterday, Boustead group managing director Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said the targeted profit growth for the year will be mainly driven by Boustead’s plantation division, as well as its pharmaceutical arm Pharmaniaga Bhd image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png.
“The target we have set to grow our normalised profit is achievable.
“The crude palm oil (CPO) price is expected to average between RM2,400 to RM2,700 this year, which will still be profitable for us, as our production cost per ha is RM1,700.
“The plantation sector will continue to be the major contributor to the group’s revenue and we remain bullish on this sector.
“Pharmaniaga aims to grow its revenue by 20% this year, banking on the expansion of Indonesian operations and halal products, as well as concession renewals,” he said.
Pharmaniaga’s revenue contribution to the group in FY17 was at 5% or RM2.32bil.
In addition, Boustead is looking to acquire land bank in Sabah to grow its plantation land bank to 100,000ha within the next one to two years.
Currently, the total plantation land bank owned by the group amounts to 93,400ha.
In a previous news article, it was reported that Boustead has allocated capital expenditure of RM1.3bil for 2018, of which RM675mil would be used for the proposed acquisition of plantation land and RM430mil to expand its land bank for property development activities.
Meanwhile, Boustead’s property division is looking to launch properties worth RM1.5bil in gross development value this year, across three locations, namely Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur, Mutiara Rini in Johor, as well as Semenyih in Selangor.
“As we do not have much land bank left in Johor, with only 160 acres to date, we will certainly look for new land bank in Johor.
“We will also be looking at possible joint ventures to jointly develop our land in Cochrane, or sell some parcels of land to generate some cash flow to the group,” said Lodin.