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JL, thanks for this info. I have been surprised at the strong rise in CPO prices. At least the prefs have at last reacted and are now trading in the low to mid 70s. Surely at some point the ordinary shares will follow suit.
JL, I picked this up from Reuters: https://uk.reuters.com/article/indonesia-palmoil/indonesia-to-revamp-palm-oil-levy-to-support-biodiesel-programme-idUSL4N2G52XU.
In the interim it seems that the CPO is edging higher, which is good news.
JL, clearly a director/shareholder buying the prefs must be a strong signal and it is good to see the CPO price still bucking the trend of markets generally. However as we noted earlier the company may record a small loss for 2020 ( perhaps depending upon CPO prices over the next 2 months ) and although it may be cash flow positive the pref dividend arrears will be close to £13m, which is a significant amount given the company's financial position. I think it very unlikely that this will be paid off in one amount but hopefully the company will be in a position to restart distributions in June 2021 together with some element of the arrears. Hopefully this will have a positive impact on the ordinary shares, but one is going to have patience...
JL, I have noticed that the MR CPO price has come off about 7% from its recent highs, although this doesn't appear to have been reflected in the Indian contract I view from time to time. In any event I don't suppose that will help the ordinary or pref share prices. BTW I assume you are based in the Far East unless you are an insomniac!
I have noticed a few quite large purchases going through this week, which I take as being positive. I am guessing that this would be institutional rather than retail ? In the meantime the various CPO indicators continue to point upwards.
Nobull, many thanks. I am no expert in these matters but as I understand it the prefs trade with the accrued in the price. Accordingly there are approx. 3.5 dividends currently embedded in the price of around 58 making the " clean " price around 42? As the company is unable to pay dividends on the ordinary shares until the pref dividend is less than 6 months in arrears it strikes me that there might be more upside to buying the prefs than the ordinary shares ? Apologies if my maths are wrong.
John, I would be interested to know which website you use for CPO prices. The company's own page always seems behind the curve. I have found these, which whilst not reflecting the exact contract nonetheless give an indication of price trends:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/commoditysummary/symbol-CPO.cms
http://mpoc.org.my/daily-palm-oil-price/
In any event it looks as though the price is continuing north, which is good news.
I have also been puzzled by the disconnect between the ordinary and pref share prices relative to the CPO price. Clearly the company's debt and amounts owing to customers are a problem, and we know that the next pref dividend will be missed. However the company should be generating cash at these CPO levels. If the company is able to make some positive noises about the June dividend in the early part of 2021 then we might see the pref price starting to motor. The major shareholders have been supportive which I think augurs well for the future.