Sime Darby Q2 profit tumbles on commodity price rout, flooding

(Adds details, share prices)

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Sime Darby Bhd , the world's biggest listed palm oil producer, said second-quarter net profit slid 47 percent, hit by a commodities rout, flooding and an oversupply of competing oilseeds.

Malaysian palm oil prices, which set the tone for global prices, fell 9 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier, the worst quarter in two years. Over 2014, they fell 15 percent.

"The sharp decline in crude oil prices and slowdown in global economic growth have exacerbated the need to push for greater productivity and cost efficiency," Chief Executive Mohd Bakke Salleh said in a statement.

Net profit declined to 437.4 million ringgit ($122 million). Revenue, however, inched up 0.3 percent to 10.74 billion ringgit.

Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm grower, saw its overall palm production fall 22 percent in December alone due to the flooding.

Sime Darby said that the heavy rain and severe floods were responsible for its fresh fruit bunch yields dropping 12 percent in quarter.

The company last month won the approval from the European Commission to buy New Britain Palm Oil Ltd for $1.74 billion, which would give Sime significant and high-yielding land holdings in Papua New Guinea.

Bakke said that the proposed takever is "progressing well" and that Sime looks forward to completing the deal by the end of this quarter.

The benchmark May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was trading at 2,270 ringgit per tonne on Thursday. Prices have gained nearly 6 percent in February but are flat for the year so far.

Shares of Sime Darby fell 0.1 percent to 9.49 ringgit ahead of the earnings announcement. The stock has climbed 3.3 percent year to date, in line with the the benchmark stock index .

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($1 = 3.5965 ringgit) (Reporting by Anuradha Raghu and Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)