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"Separately, Indonesia’s Palm Oil Workers Union (SPKS) said in a statement on Thursday that prices of palm oil fruits in ten provinces were yet to recover to pre-export ban level after falling by about 75% as palm mills scrambled to sell locally to cope with the export ban.
SPKS said in some places independent palm oil farmers had to wait in line for two to three days to sell their fruits to mills."
Such a stupid, self-destructive policy from the Indonesian President. The man is an idiot.
Food is also a delicate subject at the moment. Paying out large dividends when people are struggling to feed themselves is not a good strategy
Agree with ragnar - I have been in this share for circa 30 years and she turned down an attempt back then with an offer of 50p when the price was around 45p.
I agree shes not exactly a dynamo, but has been consistent with low salaries, doing well for the workers and not overpaying for land....just needs even her to realise that this amount of cash is just too conservative when food costs are likely to remain high for some time.
I don't think it's possible to squeeze out minority shareholders or force a delisting with ~51% as long as the minority shareholders actually vote to oppose.
A scheme of arrangement requires 75% to force the sale of minority shareholders. In a crude takeover offer, 90% are required to force the sale of minority shareholders.
AIM requires 75% to vote to delist. I don't know what the number is for LSE but it's probably the same or higher.
Ragnar. I completely agree. I meant a delisting with a take out price of £5. There would be nothing we could do as she has over 51pct. Nice to be sitting on over $ 200 million in cash....
Sorry 34 yes my comment about Indonesia one of the most corrupt was a wild exaggeration. There are many Asian companies like Thailand which are below Indonesia. What I should have said was that Indonesia has a long history of troubles with corruption, particularly under the Suharto regime
She has been around in this company for such a long time I think it's unlikely she does anything now. I imagine all sorts of hedge and artbitrage funds would get involved if a low ball offer happened. I think a delisting would be more likely but I think this company has been listed for decades so don't know why it would happen now. It's not like she is paying herself a generous salary even. Take a look at the remuneration report, the directors and CEO take some if the lowest pay I've seen of any listed company. It's a funny one.
Ragnar-Malik
Maybe Mrs Lim will simply buy the remaining shares for £ 5 each. There is nothing we can do to stop her. It has happened to a couple of my past shareholdings namely Fortune Oil and more recently Zoltav Resources. I am not saying this is likely to happen here but when you have a controlling shareholder all us small private investors have very little power to change the mentality.
I should add that I bought into AEP back in 2019 and have added more a couple of times most recently in March of this year, and will continue to hold.
MP Evans increased their dividend 58% this year to give a yield of around 3% - quite a contrast to AEP who are in an even better financial position
Indonesia isn't one of the most corrupt in the world. There are dozens and dozens of countries that would rank below it.
agreed. But I compared the cashflow yield of AEP with that of MP Evans. Yield - on this basis we are 3-4x undervalued compared to them.
It’s a direct comparable I believe, with assets in Indonesia too.x
Yes there is this paragraph from the annual report which is influencing their desire to retain huge amounts of cash
In arriving at the conclusion that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operation and meet its liabilities in the next five years the Board has assumed a worst case scenario of CPO price at its lowest average of $500/mt and that demand for CPO dropped by 50%. The Board has also factored in that half of the total plantations could be shut down for six months due to infectious disease such as Covid19.
Dividend is only $2m giving a yield of 0.5%
Also cant forgot that operations are largely based in Indonesia, which is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and with enhanced risk that this disappears from investors' plates completely
Thanks for the responses.
Incredible - this will trade at more than cash as at year end if palm oil p hold up.
I am taking the punt and buying in. This has virtually no downside and enormous upside. It’s just a question of it potentially being dead money til something moves - as you say an announcement of improved return to shareholders, a takeover bid, or a change in ownership structure.
The chairperson is indeed the most cautious management I have ever seen. Read their annual report and you will discover they present in their going concern section scenarios of literally sky has fallen and even then they would survive over the five year duration - the timeframe they picked for the scenario analysis. Well not really surprising given this cash…
The Chairwoman is either the most pessimistic person in the world or she's looking for any excuse not to pay out the cash. The explanation here is just ridiculous:
"In determining the amount of dividends to be paid to our shareholders, the Board in previous years had been consistent
with a balanced approach to the requirement of funds in the Company in order to expand and enhance shareholders’ value but at the same time cognisant of shareholders’ wishes to have dividends as a form of income. As with last year
the Board continues to have regulatory obligation to ensure that the Group has adequate funds to continue as a going
concern for the foreseeable future in a near worst-case scenario because of the uncertainty due to Covid-19 and to a
lesser extent the war in Ukraine. With the rising Coronavirus cases in Europe in early 2022, the Board felt justified in
its opinion that the pandemic is far from over especially in the region where the Group’s operations are, due to the
mutations and variants more infectious than the initial virus that the world has been combating. With this in mind the
Board continues to adopt a prudent view and in the light of the exceptional profit achieved in the year has declared a
final dividend of 5.0cts per share, in line with our reporting currency, in respect of the year to 31 December 2021 (2020:
1.0cts)."
Malik yes governance is a concern, companies like this with a large overhang are more likely to suddenly decide to delist leaving minority shareholders with a difficult choice. There are few large institutions on the register to get in the way. Catalyst for this has to be a more friendly shareholder return policy, particularly a special dividend
This stock is priced as though it’s going bust next year.
Though it seems it has always traded cheaply and at bid discount to peers - now at admittedly at an extreme.
Its beyond my comprehension why they barely pay any dividends given enormous cash flow, nor do they opt for massive buybacks.
Something is very wrong here.
Is the 51% shareholder blocking this entirely from being a shareholder friendly organisation? Why accumulate so much cash and return nothing to shareholders?!
I am just thinking… what’s the catalyst we need to get this thing moving?
Views?
$32m cash generated in the 1st quarter and prices are currently nearly $200 higher than Q1. Simply immense cash flow