SMART to open huge palm estate in Berau
SMART to open huge palm estate in Berau
JAKARTA (JP): Cooking oil and margarine producer PT Sinar Mas
Agro Resources and Technology Corporation (PT SMART Corp) will
invest Rp 350 billion (US$145.8 million) to open a 40,000 hectare
oil palm estate in Berau, East Kalimantan this year, the company
said yesterday.
Company vice president Tan Siaw Liang said the land would be
cleared later this year and planting would start next year.
Liang said SMART, a Sinar Mas group subsidiary, operated
64,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in North Sumatra, Jambi
and South Kalimantan, including 15,000 hectares which are being
developed under a smallholder nucleus estate scheme.
Liang said the company produced 140,000 tons a year from the
64,000 hectares but still needed to buy 160,000 tons of CPO for
its refineries to produce cooking oil and margarine.
The company's refineries can make 300,000 tons of cooking oil
and 75,000 tons of margarine a year.
All its products are sold domestically.
SMART's net profit rose by 35.78 percent to Rp 37 billion in
1996, Liang said. He said net profit was projected to increase
to Rp 40 billion this year.
"The company maintained growth and made a good profit with the
drop in CPO prices on the international market last year," Liang
said after the shareholders' meeting
CPO cost $495 a ton in 1996, down from $535 a ton in 1995. The
price has reportedly picked up to between $505 and $510 a ton
over the past two months.
The company recorded a 16.96 percent increase in net sales to
Rp 844.4 billion in 1996 and projected sales of between Rp 800
and 850 billion this year.
Liang said the company attributed last year's profit increase
to the sale of two loss-making subsidiaries -- the cooking oil,
margarine and shortening producer PT Sinar Meadow International
Indonesia and snack food company PT Smartindo Bluebird Snacks --
in December, 1995.
Liang said the company had wanted to sell another loss-making
subsidiary, PT Sinar Pure Foods International, a tuna caning
operation, but there were no interested buyers.
"SMART wants to focus on palm oil-based consumer products," he
said.
Liang said SMART would distribute Rp 50 dividend per share in
addition to one stock dividend for every five stocks. (jsk)