|
|
发表于 24-10-2012 05:51 PM
|
显示全部楼层
Wilmar 'needs a dose of good luck'
Stock falls to three-year low but chief upbeat on prospects
Published on Aug 16, 2012
By Goh Eng Yeow Senior Correspondent
COMMODITIES trader Wilmar International looks like it needs a decent dose of good luck to put its woeful performance behind it.
Indeed, the word "luck" popped up several times during an hour-long briefing provided by boss Kuok Khoon Hong yesterday.
He was peppered with questions over the firm's problematic oilseed and grain division, which has dragged down profitability.
Mr Kuok said that even though Wilmar's second-quarter profits fell an eye-popping 70.2 per cent to just US$117.1 million (S$145 million), he still regards it as "reasonably respectable" when seen against the firm's performance in the past decade.
In 2005, for instance, the year before it was listed, Wilmar had made a full-year profit of only US$40 million, he noted.
This is not a view shared by jittery investors, who voted with their feet yesterday, sending Wilmar's share price tumbling 24 cents, or 7.1 per cent, to a new three-year low of $3.15 on a heavy volume of 48.6 million shares.
Including yesterday's loss, Wilmar has slumped 37 per cent since January and lost $11.85 billion in market value.
Mr Kuok stayed optimistic about the prospects of the volatile oilseed and grain division, which buys soya beans and crushes them into end products such as soya bean meals and oil products.
This was despite the worries repeatedly flagged by analysts over the wild swings in the division's profitability - losing US$53 million in the first quarter and another US$40 million in the second quarter, after making US$423 million last year - which made it difficult to predict Wilmar's earnings.
Mr Kuok said: "We started in 1991 with a few million dollars, just running a refinery and trading palm oil. Later on, we went into crushing. It is a very volatile business. But we are reasonably good at it, and it was from there that we built the company into what it is today.
"Of course, luck runs out one day. That is why we kept reinvesting our profits into brick-and-mortar plantation businesses building big refineries and consumer type businesses with stable profits."
He also flagged the challenge faced by Wilmar in its largest market, China, from the state-owned companies eyeing a bigger slice of the edible oil market. But he expressed confidence that the subsidies needed to capture market share may prove to be a deterrent.
He also noted that it would be difficult for Wilmar to dodge wild swings in its earnings, given the nature of the volatile commodities trading business it is in.
"The beauty of this business is that even though I lose money this quarter, I can make a lot of money in the next quarter, if I judge the market correctly, since it is volatile," he said.
The Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com
“当然，终有一天好运将到尽头”，很多人对他这一句话很。。。.gif) 本帖最后由 icy97 于 24-10-2012 07:07 PM 编辑
|
|
本周最热论坛帖子
3409 
71
