THP targets 12% ROE for FY10

KUALA LUMPUR: TH PLANTATION Bhd (THP) is targeting a return on equity (ROE) of 12% and to pay 50% of its net profit as dividends for its financial year ending Dec 31, 2010 (FY10), pursuant to its headline key performance indicators (KPIs) announced yesterday.

According to its statement on Wednesday, March 17, THP maintained its target to distribute about 50% of its net profits as dividends as well as to achieve a fresh fruit bunches (FFB) yield per mature hectare of 21.6 tonnes."We target to expand our landbank to 50,000ha by 2012 at strategic locations to complement our growth strategy," it said. The company had achieved an ROE of 12.6% in FY09, surpassing its target of 7.5%, but fell short of meeting the FFB yield per mature hectare target of 22.5 tonnes, with an actual 21.48 tonnes due to unfavourable weather and biological tree stress.

It will distribute total gross dividends of 8.5 sen per share for FY09, translating into 58% of net profit.THP said it had surpassed its medium term KPI of positioning the group as a medium size plantation company of 32,000ha by 2009, one year ahead of time by achieving a landbank size of 39,059ha in 2008. The stock closed unchanged at RM1.52 on Wednesday, with just 16,000 shares done.