Wilmar cuts core net profit 25.2% to $267.267 million in third quarter
Key Facts
Wilmar International reported a 25.2% decline in core net profit to $267.267 million in the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, compared with $357.243 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, reported net profit was $281.033 million, after the company recorded a loss of $347.669 million in the corresponding period of 2025. The reported comparison shows a sharp difference because of an exceptional expense recorded in the year-earlier quarter. The company said net profit, excluding the compensation expense for the Indonesian government, fell 22.9% to $281.0 million from $364.6 million. Quarterly revenue rose 13.6% to $21.661 billion, from $19.066 billion a year earlier.
Wilmar attributed the earnings pressure to specific factors in its businesses, with higher raw material costs affecting the food products segment. Soybean crushing margins also weakened performance in the feed and industrial products segment. Contributions from joint ventures and associates declined as well, mainly because of weaker performance from the group's investments in soybean crushing in China. The company said higher commodity prices and global supply disruptions during the quarter increased input costs and pressured margins. Revenue growth thus coincided with a decline in core profit, as production costs and weakness in some businesses continued to weigh on the bottom line.
The group's businesses were not all affected to the same extent; Wilmar described the performance of its tropical oils business as satisfactory despite a 3.6% decline in sales volume to 6.767 million metric tons, from 7.023 million tons in the third quarter of 2025. The palm plantations business benefited from stable palm oil prices and higher production volume. For the first nine months of 2026, core net profit was $908.8 million, compared with $940.9 million in the same period last year. Net profit for the period was $889.9 million, compared with $247.3 million a year earlier. These figures show the different trajectories of core profit and reported net profit, which was affected in the year-earlier period by the Indonesian compensation expense.
Core net profit had risen 10% to $641.5 million in the first half of 2026, according to Wilmar's earlier statement. The company also said in its first-quarter results that consolidation of AWL Agri Business results began in December 2025, and that 2026 would be the first full year to include its results. It said first-quarter total sales, excluding the impact of this consolidation, would have risen 7.7% to 24.8 million metric tons, while revenue would have increased 7.6% to $17.44 billion. This places reported third-quarter revenue growth in the context of the group's expansion, with the impact of AWL consolidation varying across quarterly comparisons. The company also said in its first-quarter filing that most unrealized hedging losses are expected to reverse in subsequent quarters when the physical commodities linked to the contracts are delivered.
Wilmar said it expects the operating environment to remain challenging, but described its core businesses as resilient and expressed cautious optimism that performance for the rest of the year would be satisfactory. It linked its outlook to the group's diversified operations and focus on cost management and operational efficiency. In its first-quarter report, it said operating conditions for the rest of the year would depend on developments in geopolitical tensions and global trade policies. DBS analysts, for their part, said meeting market expectations for 2026 core earnings would require core profit of at least $465 million in each of the two second-half quarters. The analysts linked this to the sustainability of soybean oil prices near the range of $1,400 to $1,500 a ton, given the impact on soybean crushing operations.