SINGAPORE - A loss on foreign exchange during the first quarter as opposed to a gain in the same period a year ago dragged down earnings at Golden-Agri Resources by 60.1 per cent.

Net profit for the three months to Mar 31 came in at US$37.6 million (S$52.7 million), much lower than the US$94.1 million previously.

But revenue jumped 37 per cent to US$2.05 billion, supported by the appreciation of crude palm oil market prices coupled with the continued recovery in palm production as the impact of El Nino ease, said the palm oil giant in a statement yesterday.

Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) rose 28.8 per cent to US$182.8 million.

Golden-Agri chairman and chief executive Franky Widjaja said: "Golden-Agri has started 2017 well with stronger performance from our upstream business. We continue to take advantage of Golden-Agri's combined strengths in the upstream and downstream businesses to pursue positive market developments.

"For the rest of the year, we expect performance to be supported mainly by increasing production volume."