SINGAPORE - Agri and food giant Olam International more than quadrupled its net profit to $313.4 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 compared with $75.3 million a year ago.
This came on the back of a stronger Ebitda, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, performance, as well as net exceptional gains of $83.7 million for the quarter, Olam said in a regulatory filing on Friday .Revenue for Q4 rose 3.3 per cent to $8.74 billion, from $8.46 billion in the previous year.
Meanwhile, net exceptional gains came mainly from one-off gains on the divestments of de-prioritised assets, partly offset by the one-off exit costs, losses on potential disposal/sale, and/or impairment of other de-prioritised assets. A final cash dividend of 4.5 cents per share was recommended for the quarter, up from four cents a year ago. Once approved by shareholders at the April 24 annual general meeting, the dividend will be paid on May 13, after books closure on May 5. With an interim dividend of 3.5 cents, this would bring the total dividend for FY19 to eight cents per share, up from 7.5 cents in FY18.
For the full year ended Dec 31, net profit was up 62.2 per cent to $564.2 million, while revenue rose 8.2 per cent to $32.99 billion.