KUALA LUMPUR: Plantation heavyweight IOI Corporation Bhd posted a surprising net loss of RM188mil in the third quarter ended March 31, 2015.

The company said on Thursday there was a foreign exchange translation loss of RM332.7mil in the quarter.

This was a sharp contrast to the net profit of RM2.176bil a year ago when there was a forex translation gain of RM43.6mil. The previous quarter also benefited from the one-off net gain arising from demerger exercise of RM1.83bil.

Loss per share was 2.95 sen compared with earnings per share of 34.20 sen.

Loss before tax was RM109.20mil compared with profit before tax of RM460mil. During the quarter, revenue was lower at RM2.776bil compared with RM2.899bil.

For the nine months ended March 31, 2015, its earning slumped to RM8.20mil from the RM2.965bil in the previous corresponding period. The sharp fall was due to the forex translation losses of RM658.50mil compared with losses of RM105.90mil a year ago.

Profit before tax was RM253.60mil compared with RM1.237bil. Revenue was lower at RM8.679bil from RM9.079bil