Billion Dollar Club: CONSUMER DEFENSIVE

Bumitama Agri, a regular winner at the Billion Dollar Club (BDC), features prominently in this year’s awards again. At last year’s awards, the Indonesia-based palm oil producer vaulted from the Centurion Club into the BDC.

This year, Bumitama Agri not only held its place within the big league, but it has also been named overall winner in the BDC consumer defensive sector, as well as for returns to shareholders. First Resources, another Indonesian palm oil company, is recognised for the highest growth in profit after tax (PAT), while Sheng Siong Group, which is a leading supermarket chain in Singapore, is named the winner for the highest weighted return on equity (ROE).

Bumitama Agri was founded in 1996 and listed on the Singapore Exchange in 2012. It has quickly grown to become one of the leading growers and producers of fresh fruit bunches, crude palm oil, and palm kernel in Indonesia. It now manages around 190,000ha of oil palm plantation in Indonesia, with almost 30% dedicated to smallholders, and operates a total of 17 mills with a processing capacity of 6.99 million metric tonnes annually. Its trees have are of a weighted average age of 13.8 years at the close of 2024, and are poised to sustain growth in production volume in the upcoming year.  

See also: A rejuvenated Singapore market, a reset for The Edge Singapore

mute
By paying close attention to R&D, the company has managed to improve yields and extraction rates. In 2024, the company was one of the most efficient producers in the industry today, with a crude palm oil (CPO) yield of 4.1 tonnes per ha.

First Resources, established in 1992 and listed on the Singapore Exchange since 2007, manages a similar-sized plantation of some 215,000ha across the Riau, East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces. 

In the three years under consideration for this year’s awards, its profit after tax grew at a CAGR of 15.1% to $245.8 million in the most recent FY2024, led by a growing volume of crude palm oil production, which exceeded one million tonnes in what the company dubs a “milestone” year. 

First Resources has an ongoing replanting programme where it is converting its rubber to oil palm estates, and the rejuvenation of newly acquired plantation assets. “We are confident that the group is well-placed to deliver meaningful volume and yield growth in the medium term,” says First Resources.

See also: From momentum to transformation: Building a relevant stock market

Sheng Siong Group is in the news recently for opening new outlets in what some observers might call its non-traditional areas. The leading supermarket chain has built a reputation for opening outlets in core public housing estates, where it attracts legions of customers with its competitive prices for daily essentials. In recent months, the company has opened, or planning to open new outlets in locations with a decidedly different profile: within malls. Examples include Kinex mall along Tanjong Katong Road, Cathay mall at Orchard Road and Leisure Park Kallang.