KUALA LUMPUR: Plantation heavyweight IOI Corporation Bhd's earnings rose 70.9% to RM3.373bil in the financial year ended June 30, 2014 from RM1.973bil in the previous financial year, boosted by a one-time gain of RM1.89bil.

It said on Wednesday the significant increase was due mainly to the gain of RM1.89bil arising from the demerger of the property business from the group.

However, this was moderated by translation loss of RM40.3mil on foreign currency denominated borrowings as compared to a translation gain of RM191.4mil a year ago.

"Excluding the non-recurring items and translation difference above, the group's operating profit from its continuing operations for FY2014 of RM1.945bil is 19% higher than the operating profit of RM1.631bill reported for FY2013, mainly due to higher contribution from all business segments," it said.

IOI Corp said the plantation segment reported a higher profit of RM1.185bil for FY2014 as compared to RM1.055bil for FY2013. The higher profit was mainly due to higher crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel prices realised as well as higher fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production.

"Average CPO price realised for FY2014 was RM2,509 a tonne as compared to RM2,433 a tonne for FY2013," it said.

The group's resource-based manufacturing segment' profit rose 30% to RM787.30mil in FY2014 when compared with RM607.80mil in FY2013.

"The increase in profit is due mainly to higher margin and increase in sales volume from oleochemicals and specialty oils and fats sub-segments," it said.

However, its revenue slipped 2.3% to RM11.91bil from RM12.198bil a year ago.

In the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2014, its earnings increased 50.5% to RM407.50mil from RM270.70mil. Its revenue was down 3.6% to RM2.83bil from RM2.94bil a year ago. Earnings per share were 6.42 sen compared with 4.24 sen.