KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 7): The worst is over for Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) according to group CEO Datuk Zakaria Arshad, referring to the challenging year it faced in 2016.

"I believe the worst is over for FGV, 2016 was the worst year [thus far], but we see our bottom line improving [in 2017]," he said when speaking to reporters after a Chinese New Year event here today.

For the nine months to Sept 30, 2016, FGV reported a net loss of RM98.19 million compared with a net profit of RM15.74 million a year ago.

Zakaria was also upbeat on FGV’s future earnings outlook, on the strong recovery of crude palm oil (CPO) prices.

Meanwhile, Zakaria said he expects CPO prices to stay around the RM3,000 level from now until April, given the current low inventory which is below two million tonnes.

"Prices are expected to adjust to between RM2,600 and RM2,800 per tonne as we anticipate pick up in production beginning at the end of the second quarter this year," he said, adding that the average CPO price may settle nearer towards RM2,800 per tonne.

Personally, Zakaria is of the opinion that CPO would be oversold if it trades below RM2,300 per tonne.

"Of course that is based on my technical and fundamental analysis coupled with my own experiences in this field," he said, adding that prices, in the end, will be dictated by supply and demand.

On Koperasi Permodalan Felda Bhd's move to sell five million FGV shares recently, Zakaria said he was informed that it was purely an investment decision.

"I don't know what the real motives are, but the fact that they are still holding substantial shares in FGV means that they still have faith in us," he said.  

The group has already seen an increase in yields from its replanting activities in January and will continue to see an increase in the coming quarter, Zakaria said.

FGV is expecting an additional 500,000 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches this year — bringing its total FFB production to 4.6 million tonnes.