A “better-than-expected” tea harvest helped producer Camellia (CAM) report annual results that were ahead of expectations. The company produced 95m kilograms (kg), its second-highest year for production behind 2016’s 99.1m kg – particularly encouraging given the company's increased focus on its agriculture business. It's where management feels the company’s core crops (tea, macadamia and avocado) have the best scale and geographic spread.
But while weather was good in the tea-making regions, it proved disastrous for the Caribbean. Hurricanes Irma and Maria largely wiped out pre-tax profit in this division to $1.9m Bermudian dollars (£1.3m) – an 89 per cent decline on the year before.
The disposal of private bank Duncan Lawrie also completed during the period, and the resulting £20.3m in sale proceeds helped turn a 2016 £5.9m loss into a £28.6m after-tax profit last year.
Brokerage Panmure Gordon expects pre-tax profit of £25.8m in 2018, giving EPS of 275p, compared with £29m and 308p in 2017.
| CAMELLIA (CAM) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 12,000p | MARKET VALUE: | £336m | |
| TOUCH: | 12,000-12,150p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 13,700p | LOW: 10,000p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.1% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 13,157p | NET CASH: | £102m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2013 | 251 | 59.6 | 1,020 | 152 |
| 2014 | 239 | 22.0 | 103 | 126 |
| 2015 | 245 | 24.0 | 51.0 | 129 |
| 2016 | 258 | 26.5 | -387 | 130 |
| 2017 | 298 | 27.6 | 804 | 135 |
| % change | +16 | +4 | -307 | +4 |
| Ex-div: | 14 Jun | |||
| Payment: | 13 Jul |
