Camellia Regulatory News (CAM)

3 Jun 2009 12:12



Camellia Plc

AGM Statement 2009

I would now like to take this opportunity to bring shareholders up to date with events in the current year.

India, Bangladesh and Kenya all suffered from prolonged droughts at the beginning of the year. These droughts have now broken but the loss of early production was substantial and it is doubtful whether this will be made up over the remainder of the year. Tea prices have however remained beneficial during this period and will mitigate the production loss to some extent.

Detrimental climatic conditions also had a major impact on macadamia production in Malawi and on arable crop production in Brazil.

Our engineering companies are still experiencing mixed fortunes. The low value of sterling obviously helps those of our customers who are involved in the export market but orders received remain at a lower level compared to previous years.

Low margins continue to affect our banking operations but the asset management and financial planning divisions of Duncan Lawrie are performing to budget.

The triennial actuarial valuations of two of our UK based final salary pension schemes are about to be considered by the trustees of those schemes and this will be followed by discussions between the company and the trustees and actuaries. It is therefore premature to arrive at any conclusions as to the funding of the deficits. 

It is pleasing to report that recent general elections in both India and South Africa took place without any major violence or interruptions and governments with a wide popular mandate have been returned which hopefully augurs well for the future of those countries.

Further enquiries please contact Camellia Plc

Malcolm Perkins

01622 746655

3rd June 2009