Equatorial Palm Oil losses deepen on Liberia asset write down

By BFN News |

Liberia-focused palm oil producer Equatorial Palm Oil booked a deeper annual loss after it wrote down the value of the Butaw estate. Pre-tax and net losses for the year through September amounted to $15.1m, compared to losses of $4.3m on-year. The company had decided to discontinue operations at Butaw, given there was insufficient land for oil palm development.

During the year, revenue had also started flowing from the new Palm Bay mill and estate, also located in Liberia. ‘The next 12 months will be telling at Palm Bay as we seek an increase in yield, reduce theft and increase productivity of our workforce all with the aim of making Palm Bay estate profitable,’ chairman Michael Frayne said.

‘We still have no doubt that sustainable and controlled agricultural development in Liberia is the way to address the country’s economic and social woes and this has clearly been demonstrated by the development of the palm oil industry in south-east Asia.’ At 1:17pm: (LON:PAL) Equatorial Palm Oil PLC share price was 0p at 1.05p Story provided by StockMarketWire.com