Asian Plantations may not be paying a dividend, or making a profit just yet, but it has accumulated 20,770 hectares of land in Sarawak, Malaysia - most of which will eventually yield palm oil. And with all-in costs of around $9,000 (£5,600) per hectare, against mature palm oil estate values of up to $30,000 per hectare, there's significant upside potential.
The group also expects to have its own state-of-the-art vertical sterilizer crushing mill coming on stream by the year-end. Moreover, all four plantations are only 2 ½ hours travelling time from the deep water port at Bintulu. Of the total land bank, around 9,322 hectares had been planted by the year-end and a further 5,500 hectares will be planted this year, with the remainder in 2013. For those areas that are unsuitable for palm planting – usually where there are steeper gradients – management plans to plant around 300 hectares of rubber trees. The group also raised $47.4m to pay for further acquisitions and a bank guaranteed medium-term notes programme worth up to $82.8m is expected to complete by the end of the second quarter.
Panmure Gordon expects a loss per share of 16.3¢ for 2012.
| ASIAN PLANTATIONS (PALM) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 250p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 102m | |
| TOUCH: | 250-257p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 287p | LOW: 230p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 145¢ | NET DEBT: | 28% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | nil | -0.40 | -2.00 | nil |
| 2009 | nil | -1.40 | -6.80 | nil |
| 2010 | 0.31 | -3.80 | -11.6 | nil |
| 2011 | 0.58 | -10.8 | -28.2 | nil |
| % change | +87 | - | - | - |
Ex-div:- Payment:- £1=$1.59 | ||||
