New Britain doubles profit from palm oil

New Britain Palm Oil (Crude Palm Oil ) doubled quarterly profits and underlined plans to double acreage over the next seven years in anticipation of strong palm oil prices, the Australasia-focused planter said on Wednesday. First-quarter pretax profits for the period to May 13 doubled to $37 million as sales rose 63 percent to $83 million, Papua New Guinea's largest palm oil producer said. New Britain has doubled in value since its December listing giving it a current market value of 790 million pounds ($1.54 billion). Its performance compares with a 3.7 percent decline in the FTSE All Share <.FTAS> index in 2008. With no debt, about $50 million in cash and a share price that's a shade off its March peak of 600p, the company is on track to double acreage by 2015, Executive Director Alan Chaytor told Reuters. New Britain has about 40,000 hectares of plantation estates on Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands -- a size it can easily double in surrounding areas, Chaytor said. Additional estates could come from acquisitions in Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's two top producers of the edible oil, he said, adding that palm oil prices are expected to stay strong in the medium to long-term.