First Resources harvested fresh fruit bunches fell 11.3%

3Q profits predicted to range from $49-53m.

First Resources (FR)'s fresh fruit bunches (FFB) nucleus production for 3Q16 jumped qoq on the back of strong FFB yield recovery, but remained low on a yoy basis.

FR harvested a total of 773,357 FFB which represents 43.3% rise qoq. It declined by 11.3% on an annual basis.

Moving forward, UOBKayHian expects another round of strong FFB production in 4Q16 and FR to meet its 2016 full-year forecast of 2.3m tonnes (-9.6% yoy).

"The refining division is expected to post a turnaround in 3Q16 along with a qoq increase in refining volume," it said.

FFB nucleus production reached 1.6m tonnes (-14.0% yoy), accounting for about 70% of UOBKayHian's 2016 estimate. It expects 4Q16 FFB nucleus production to fulfill the remaining 30% of 2016 estimate.

FR is targeting to release its 3Q16 results on 9 Nov 16 after the market close. UOBKayHian expects a 3Q16 core net profit of US$35m-38m (S$49m-$53m). This compares to US$26.1m (S$36.3m) in 2Q16 and US$31.7m ($44.1m) in 3Q15.