16 June 2023

Anglo-Eastern Plantations Plc

("AEP" or the "Company")

AGM Statement

The 38th Annual General Meeting of Anglo-Eastern Plantations Plc will be held at the offices of UHY Hacker Young LLP, 6^th floor Quadrant House, 4 Thomas More Square, London E1W 1YW at 11am today.

At the meeting, the Chairman will comment on current operational performance and development as well as the outlook for the remainder of 2023.

Operational and financial performance

For the first five months ended 31 May 2023, our own production of fresh fruit bunches ("FFB") from continuing operations was 420,300mt, a decrease of 5% compared to the same period in 2022 (five months to May 2022: 443,800mt on a like-for-like basis). FFB production from discontinued operations was 12,200mt against 17,000mt for the corresponding period last year. The plantations in Kalimantan with younger palms performed reasonably well, up 4% against last year while plantations with older palms in North Sumatera, Riau and Bengkulu experienced a large drop in production of between 9% to 20%. The production in Bengkulu was also affected by replanting activities which reduced matured areas by 1,675 hectares replanted from 2022 to May 2023. Lower production in Sumatera was mainly due to seasonal variation and a shift in crop pattern as the same was experienced by our neighbouring plantations. Rainfall levels were better than last year, except for Riau and Kalimantan.

FFB bought in was 404,000mt, a decrease of 13% in comparison with the same period last year (five months to May 2022: 466,000mt). Lower external crop bought in was due to lower crop production of all the plantations in the region, inline with the drop in our own plantations. Total Crude Palm Oil ("CPO") production for the first five months of 2023 was 169,200mt, 10% lower than the corresponding period in 2022 (five months to May 2022: 187,000mt).

The CPO ex-Rotterdam price averaged $1,006/mt for the first five months to 31 May 2023, 39% lower than the average price of the corresponding period in 2022 (first five months to May 2022: $1,650/mt). Similarly, the average ex-mill price of CPO achieved was $768/mt, a 28% decline compared to the corresponding period in 2022 (first five months to May 2022: $1,064/mt). The lower CPO price was due to the lack of demand caused by the high inventory of vegetable oil stocks especially a glut in sunflower and canola leading to CPO trading at a premium against some of the softoils.

Development

AEP has plantations across Indonesia and Malaysia, amounting to approximately 90,700 hectares from continuing operations, of which approximately 68,570 hectares including plasma are planted. For discontinued operations, AEP has 37,300 hectares of plantations in which 7,750 hectares including plasma are planted. The Group's new planting and replanting including Plasma for the first five months ended 31 May 2023 was 916 hectares (five months to May 2022: 371 hectares).  

As previously announced, the Group expects a delay in completion to the operational date for the newly built, seventh mill in North Sumatera, Indonesia. This is following the incident at the HPP mill causing a tragic loss of lives of four employees of the contractor, while they were working on the Anaerobic Tank Digester. The HPP plantation's operation in the production of FFB is unaffected by this incident, and the Group expects no financial impact as a result of this incident of the delay. The police are still conducting their investigation into the cause of the explosion and the Group continues to expect the delay in handing over will be approximately six months.

The design of the earthworks for the site selected for the construction of the second mill in Kalimantan has been completed. Work will start after the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") which is now at the stage of evaluation by the Department of Environment ("DOE"). The approval of the EIA is expected to be received in Q3 2023.

Outlook

The CPO price ex-Rotterdam closed at $890/mt on 2 June 2023, representing a decrease of 16% from the start of the year at $1,060/mt. We expect a further reduction in CPO prices as crop production improves further in the second half of the year.

Note: The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

For further enquiry, contact:

Anglo-Eastern Plantations Plc

Dato' John Lim Ewe Chuan                                                                      +44 (0)20 7216 4621

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited

Dominic Morley / Amrit Mahbubani                                                          +44 (0)20 7886 2500