KUALA LUMPUR: FGV Holdings Bhd (FGV) closed its financial year ended Dec 31 2022 (FY2022) by recording its highest ever revenue since its 2012 listing at RM25.56 billion and a net profit of RM1.95 billion.
FGV group chief executive officer Datuk Nazrul Mansor said the stellar performance was driven by a 32 per cent rise in average crude palm oil (CPO) price and higher throughput and tonnage carried by the group's logistics business.
"This (the financial result) demonstrates our continuous commitments to sustainable financial growth and success."
"With our transformation initiatives in place, FGV will continue to push the boundaries and achieve new milestones as we're committed to delivering exceptional value and driving growth for all our stakeholders," he said after announcing the FY2022 result.
In FY2021, FGV's net profit was recorded at RM1.71 billion on the back of RM19.56 billion revenue.
Nazrul said the result was partially offset by the losses incurred in the sugar sector, mainly due to a 22 per cent rise in production costs.
For its fourth quarter, the group posted RM6.10 billion in revenue from RM6.17 billion in the same period in 2021.
FGV posted a lower net profit of RM337.7 million against RM465.1 million a year earlier.
The group announced a final dividend payment of 11 sen a share, amounting to RM401.30 million in total dividend payout.
For FY2022, FGV declared a total dividend payment of 15 sen a share.
Nazrul expects CPO prices to maintain at an average of RM4,000 per tonne in 2023 with FFB production year-on-year increase of 16 per cent to 4.6 million tonnes.
"We have a yield target of 17.2 tonnes a hectare and our CPO production increase of two per cent compared to 2021 at 2.95 million tonnes," he said, adding that the group's plantation division would continue to improve its operations through mechanisation, replanting programmes and implementing cost optimisation initiatives.
On the U.S. Customs and Border Protection ban on FGV's palm oil products, Nazrul said the group was expected to submit the application by the end of the first quarter this year.
He hoped that the Withhold Release Order suspension, which was slapped on the group two years ago, would be lifted by year-end.
Nazrul also said FGV would be paying RM81.64 million to its current 23,333 foreign workers in three tranches between March and September 2023.
The payment is in line with FGV's No Recruitment Fees policy where the group would reimburse its current and former foreign workers who were employed after June 27 2019 and had to pay recruitment fees to agents or other third parties in countries of origin.
"Additionally, FGV has created a sinking fund amounting to RM30 million to reimburse former workers who paid recruitment fees during their employment with FGV but are no longer employed by the company," Nazrul said.