First Resources earnings dropped 13% to US$63.6m

But it's still better than expected.

According to DBS, First Resources (FR) reported 1Q13 net profit of US $63.6m (+30% y-o-y; -13% q-o-q), including US$1.3m of FX gains and US$1.6m losses in derivative financial instruments.

This represented 35% of DBS' full year forecast – better than expected. The main difference was higher implied CPO ASP of US$929/MT (+3% y-o-y; +10% q-o-q), which was c.35% higher than average spot price (net of export taxes).

Here's more from DBS:

1Q13 top line rose 6% y-o-y (+30% q-o-q) to US$174.6m, on the back of a 20% y-o-y jump in CPO sales volume (i.e. due to a significant inventory drawdown) in addition to the higher CPO ASP. We understand the group had drawn down its CPO inventory to just 1 month of production as of end Mar13.

But FFB yields have dropped. FR produced 394,757 MT of own FFB (-4% y-o-y; -24% q-o-q)) and 114,898 MT of CPO in 1Q13 (+4% y-o-y; -21% q-o-q).

FFB yield dropped to 3.8MT/ha for the quarter (-25% y-o-y; -37% q-o-q), while OER was flat at 23.3%. Own estates plantings expanded by 3.7k ha in 1Q13, excluding 8,634 ha from acquisition of Lynhurst in Feb13. This compares to 13k ha forecast for the year.