Olam Profit Rises 26% to S$43.2 Million as Volumes Almost Double

Olam International Ltd. (OLAM), the food commodities supplier part owned by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, said first-quarter profit gained 26 percent as sales volumes almost doubled.

Net income was S$43.2 million ($35.3 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, from S$34.2 million a year ago, Singapore-based Olam said today in a statement. That compares with the S$27.6 million average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Revenue increased 45 percent to S$4.69 billion.

Sales by volume jumped 98 percent in the quarter driven by an increase in grains, Olam said. Today’s result also included an operational gain of S$10.1 million because of “fair valuation of biological assets,” that the company began in the third quarter of last year and didn’t do in the corresponding first quarter, Olam said.

Olam fell 4.4 percent to S$1.76 in Singapore, the lowest since July 25. The result was announced after the close of trade. The stock has lost 17 percent this year, making it the third-worst performer on the benchmark Straits Times Index.

The first quarter normally accounts for only 5 percent to 10 percent of the company’s full-year profit due to seasonality of agricultural products, Olam said in today’s statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Yun in Hong Kong at myun11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net