Singapore, May 15, 2008 – Olam International Limited (“Olam” or “the Group”), a leading global, integrated supply chain manager of agricultural products and food ingredients, today reported a year-on-year 38.5% growth in Net Profit After Tax to S$55.9 million for the third quarter ended March 31, 2008 (“Q3 FY2008”).
The aggregate Net Profit After Tax for the cumulative nine months of the financial year ("9M FY2008") rose 31.0% to S$102.8 million over the previous corresponding period.
Said Olam’s Group CFO, Krishnan Ravikumar: "The third quarter is typically the strongest due to the seasonality of our business given that most of the harvesting happens between October and March. While headline Sales Revenue grew at 52.2% mainly due to volume growth as well as a significant increase in the underlying prices of commodities, we believe that it is the growth in NC which is a more accurate measure of our operating performance.
"We have achieved a strong NC growth of 44.1% and 51.0% during the quarter and cumulatively over the nine months inspite of unprecedented levels of market volatility we experienced during this period. These have been achieved on account of sustained high growth rate of our existing businesses and the value and earnings-accretive acquisitions we made. Organic NC growth for the quarter and nine months was a creditable 25.7% and 28.6% respectively," he added.
Olam’s Group Managing Director and CEO, Sunny Verghese concurred: "Our ability to reliably and consistently grow our earnings despite market volatility is a testimony to the resilience and effectiveness of our business model. This enables us to provide better predictability and also have better visibility of our earnings. Our financial resource position has also been considerably strengthened through higher earnings and an enlarged equity base post our very successful equity raising through a preferential offering under very tough capital market conditions, reflecting the confidence of our investors in our prospects."
* Based on weighted average number of shares of 1,555,848,650 for Q3 FY2008 (compared to weighted average number of shares of 1,554,584,400 for Q3 FY2007).
** Based on weighted average number of shares of 1,555,758,698 for 9M FY2008 (compared to weighted average number of shares of 1,554,584,400 for 9M FY2007).