Astra Agro's profit falls

Astra Agro's profit falls

JAKARTA: PT Astra Agro Lestari, Indonesia's biggest publicly
traded plantations company, said its nine-month profit fell 11
percent after palm-oil prices declined.

Net income fell to Rp 589.1 billion (US$59 million), or Rp 374
a share, in the period ending on Sept. 30 from Rp 664.7 billion,
or Rp 425, a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the
Jakarta Stock Exchange on Monday. Sales fell 8 percent to Rp 2.42
trillion.

The average price of palm-oil futures on the Malaysian
Derivative Exchange for the three month period ending on Sept. 30
was 1,294 ringgit (US$343) a metric ton compared with 1,452
ringgit in the same period last year, according to Bloomberg
data.

Astra Agro's crude palm-oil output rose to 622,396 tons in the
first nine months this year, from 574,816 tons in the year
earlier period. -- Bloomberg