PETALING JAYA: Plantation heavyweight IOI Corp Bhd’s earnings for the second quarter ended Dec 31, 2013 fell 8.3% year-on-year to RM487.1mil from RM531mil, as revenue went down 9.6% to RM2.939bil from RM3.252bil.

Earnings per share came in at 7.62 sen from 8.31 sen in the corresponding quarter a year earlier, and the board of directors proposed a tax-free dividend of 8 sen per ordinary share, it said on Tuesday.

It is payable on March 21 to shareholders registered by March 12, 2014.

Earnings for the two quarters so far dropped 30.5% to RM789mil from RM1.135bil the year before, as revenue slipped 3.2% to RM6.179bil from RM6.385bil.

IOI said profit in the quarter under report fell mainly due to translation loss of RM14mil on foreign currency-denominated borrowings compared to a gain of RM92.0 million in Q2 FY2013. It said apart from this, the underlying profit for Q2 FY2014 is 13% higher, driven by higher contribution from all major segments.

Plantation profit increased 3% to RM313.7mil versus RM304.3mil previously; resource-based manufacturing profit was up 48.5% to RM259.8mil from RM174.9mil; property development profit rose 14% to RM160mil fromRm140.5mil; and property investment was up slightly to RM16.8mil from RM16.4mil.

On its prospects, IOI said palm oil prices had been on a positive uptrend due to improved fundamentals, and this positive price uptrend was expected to be sustained. It also noted that palm kernel prices had moved up even more than palm oil due to strong demand for lauric oils.

“With the positive price outlook coupled with higher contributions expected from the newly acquired Unico-Desa estates in Sabah and our associate company in Indonesia, the group expects its plantation division to perform better than last financial year,” it said.

IOI said, overall, the group’s performance for the remaining quarters is expected to be satisfactory.