Malaysia\\\'s Sime Darby Q4 profit down 9 pct

Malaysia's plantations-to-motoring conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd posted a 9 per cent drop in fourth-quarter net profit as lower palm output hit sales and sluggish commodity prices and volatile currency markets also weighed on its businesses. The weaker earnings at the world's top oil palm planter by landbank size come as Malaysian palm oil prices have sunk nearly 26 per cent so far this year to languish at more than five-year lows. Sime said its plantation division was hurt by the drop in palm oil prices, but that it expected prices of the tropical oil to pick up in the long-run. ‘The plantation division was not able to achieve crude palm oil sales targets due to a drop in fresh fruit bunch production by 7 per cent compared to the previous financial year,’ Sime Darby president and group chief executive Mohd Bakke Salleh said in a statement. The output fall was mainly due to poor crop weather in Indonesia, which contrasted with a bumper crop there last year. Net profit in the April-to-June period was 1.19 billion ringgit ($377 million), Sime Darby said in a filing to the Malaysian bourse. The firm's financial year ended June 30, 2014. Revenue fell 2 per cent year-on-year to 12.51 billion ringgit, according to Reuters.