Anglo-Eastern Plantations Regulatory News (AEP)

4 Feb 2008 10:01

Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC04 February 2008 4 February 2008 ANGLO-EASTERN PLANTATIONS PLC Further acquisition and 2007 trading update AcquisitionAnglo-Eastern has recently acquired, for $0.6m, a further 2,000ha of landcontiguous to its new oil palm development at Labuhan Bilik in North Sumatra,bringing the plantable area of this promising site, which was acquired in late2004, to over 6,000ha. Planting of the existing estate, which has reached2,500ha, is proceeding satisfactorily and should be complete by the end of 2009. This acquisition brings the group's total land area to approximately 100,000haand brings total land acquisitions in the last two months to some 50,000ha,enabling significant expansion over the next five to eight years. Production 2007 2006 (unaudited) (audited) mt mtOil palm productionFFB- all estates 528,000 513,902- bought-in or processed for third parties 333,000 294,647Saleable CPO 171,000 156,285Saleable palm kernels 41,000 36,569 Other crops productionRubber 1,050 1,088Cocoa - 46 Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) production for 2007 improved, to be 2% ahead of 2006 ona like-for-like basis, having been 2% behind for the six months to June 2007.Total FFB production of 528,000mt included 3,800mt from Cahaya Pelita Andhika,the 4,400ha partly planted, but badly maintained, estate, acquired in June 2007. Bought in FFB crop for 2007 included 55,000mt by the new mill at Bina PitriJaya, which was commissioned in March 2007. On a like-for-like basis, totalbought in crop was therefore 6% down on 2006. This reflected very competitiveconditions at Tasik mill, where the decrease was 17%. Bought in crop at thesmaller Blankahan mill increased by 17%. Bought in crop produces a lower profitmargin than estate crop. PricesThe average CPO price/mt during 2007 was about $790, 64% higher than the averageof $479 for 2006. The price was $963 at the end of 2007 and is now about $1,040. ProfitThe profit for 2007 will therefore show a very significant improvement over thatfor 2006. The preliminary results for 2007 will be announced in the first weekof April. Enquiries: Anglo-Eastern Plantations plc 020-7236 2838Rollo Barnes (Financial Director) Bankside Consultants LimitedCharles Ponsonby 020-7367 8851 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange