The rating on Malaysia-based palm oil producer IOI Corp. Bhd. reflects the company's favorable plantation resources, intermediate financial risk profile, and strong competitive cost position. These strengths are largely due to the synergy between IOI's key business segments, given that more than 90% of the company's plantation sales are to its own downstream facilities. The cyclical nature of IOI's plantation and property businesses and the company's fairly aggressive stance to debt-funded expansions and acquisitions in the past, partly moderate these strengths. We believe the company will maintain its aggressive stance toward future strategic acquisitions. However, we expect IOI's credit protection metrics to remain commensurate with the rating. IOI's overall operating margin improved to 22.8% for the fiscal year ended June
