Daily news - 13 Feb

Olam Q2 profit lifted by bond redemption
Olam International yesterday reported net profit of S$103.4 million for the second quarter to Dec 31, 2008, up 173 per cent from the preceding financial year's S$37.9 million. Much of the increase was due to a S$55.9 million gain the agricultural products supply chain manager booked after it bought back US$117.6 million of convertible bonds at 65 cents on the dollar in December. The repurchase was funded by a new three-year term loan facility. It was really a gift from the market to us,' said group managing director and chief executive officer Sunny Verghese. For the half year, net profit was up 151.4 per cent at S$118.3 million, from S$47 million a year ago. Sales increased 16.1 per cent to S$3.86 billion, from S$3.33 billion. Excluding the S$55.9 million gain, core after-tax earnings grew 32.9 per cent to S$62.4 million, said Olam. Earnings per share for the half year was 6.91 cents, up from 3.03 cents. Q2 revenue from sale of goods rose 10.2 per cent to S$2.15 billion, after a 20.2 per cent jump in sales volume to 1.7 million tonnes. Mr Verghese said the revenue increase came despite a roughly 20 per cent drop in Olam's volume weighted average commodity price basket.

Source: Kim Eng