Wilmar International Limited (WIL) reported a mostly in-line set of 1Q15 results, with revenue down 8.3% YoY at US$9411.3m, mostly reflecting the still-soft commodity prices. Still, topline met about 21% of our full-year forecast. And thanks to a strong 142.4% jump in contribution from associates, reported net profit surged 49.1% to US$241.2m.

Core net profit grew at a slightly slower pace of 22.7% to US$263.3m, meeting 21.4% of our FY15 estimate. Going forward, management remains modestly upbeat about its prospects. It expects crush margins to remain positive going into mid-2015; consumer products to continue to grow globally with reasonable margins; but notes that the operating conditions for Tropical Oils will remain challenging. It adds that it is "cautiously optimistic" that 2Q performance will be "satisfactory". We will have more after the analyst briefing later.

For now, we keep our BUY rating and S$3.50 fair value (based on 13x FY15F EPS).

Source: OCBC Research - 8 May 2015