Dekel Agri-Vision Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: DKL / Sector: Food Producers

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc ('Dekel' or the 'Company')

2021 Interim Results and Shareholder Call

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc, the West Africa-focused agriculture company, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021. 

The Company will be hosting a shareholder conference call at 2pm UK time on 28 September 2021.  The call will be hosted by Executive Director, Lincoln Moore and Deputy CEO Shai Kol, who will discuss the interim results and provide an update on activity across its portfolio of projects.  Further information about the call can be found at the end of this announcement, as well as in the presentation, which will be uploaded to the corporate website prior to the conference call.

Key Highlights

Palm Oil Operation

·    Record H1 2021 Revenue of €21.7m, an increase of 40.9% compared to H1 2020

·    Record H1 2021 EBITDA of €3.9m, an increase of 105.3% compared to H1 2020 

·    A near record H1 2021 Net Profit of €2.0m, an increase of 400% compared to H1 2020.  An excellent result given this included pre-production cashew operating expenses for the first time, in addition to timing issues which resulted in a higher than normal CPO inventory being sold post period end.

Cashew Project

·    Construction of the cashew processing plant has made huge strides in H1 2021.  We are on the cusp of first production within the next 50 days, with the commissioning phase now also commenced

Financial Overview

As set out in the table below - the Company's first half financial performance has been excellent, particularly when set against the backdrop of COVID-19. 

Production - palm oil project, Ayenouan Côte d'Ivoire

·    A very strong first-half year of global Crude Palm Oil ('CPO') prices and an improvement in CPO volumes produced and sold during H1 2021 drove the material improvement in results

·    35.7% increase in average realised sales price of €817 per tonne of CPO (H1 2020: €602)

o  CPO prices rallied strongly during the first half to around a 10-year high.  Current prices post 30 June 2021 remain even higher than the price average of H1 2021, with current prices being achieved of over €900 per tonne 

·    26,515 tonnes of CPO produced in first half, 11.0% higher than H1 2020 production of 23,882 tonnes.  We believe this is due to the stabilisation of operations and logistics following the peak Covid-19 disruption in H1 2020

·    The extraction rate remained solid at 21.4%, although below H12020 result of 22.5% due to lower oil content in the Fresh Fruit Bunches ('FFB')

·    3.7% increase in CPO sales of 24,784 tonnes (H1 2020: 23,906 tonnes).  Higher levels of stock on hand at the end of H1 2021 compared to H1 2020 have now been sold post period end  

·    ESG milestones achieved included completion of final pre-audit of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification process setting us up to deliver our goal of RSPO certification

Imminent production - cashew processing project at Tiebissou in Côte d'Ivoire

·    Production on course to commence within the next 50 days at which point Tiebissou will become Dekel's second producing asset and provide exposure to the high margin, global cashew market

·    Tiebissou expected to lead to step-up in Dekel's revenue and profitability as operations ramp up in 2022

New Ventures - proceeding cautiously due to significant focus upon bringing Tiebissou to production and COVID-19 market volatility

·    New commodity project - one venture in Côte d'Ivoire being actively considered as a new project for the Company is currently undertaking an independent feasibility process

·    Hybrid power project - feasibility study being undertaken by JV partner Green Enesys on the development of a 30MW solar PV plant and a 5-6MW biomass plant using feedstock from Ayenouan

Dekel Executive Director Lincoln Moore said, "Following a two to three year period of challenging trading conditions due to low CPO prices and more recently, Covid-19, we believe H1 2021's record results have been an outstanding outcome for the Company and come at an important moment as we shortly commence production at our Cashew project.  In addition, with global crude palm oil prices currently trading at cyclical highs, we are extremely confident that our H2 2021 results will also show material improvement compared to H2 2020. 

"Looking forward into 2022, we believe that the Company is well positioned to enter a period of sustained growth in financial performance.  Together with the current high palm oil prices, the other key catalyst behind the step-up in performance will be, we expect, the incorporation of the first full year of Cashew production, which will diversify and significantly increase our profitability profile.  We look forward to providing further updates on progress made over what appears to be a very exciting next six months for the Company."      

Conference Call

Lincoln Moore and Shai Kol will provide a live presentation relating to the Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021 via the Investor Meet Company platform on 28th Sep 2021 at 2:00pm BST.

The presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders. Questions can be submitted pre-event via your Investor Meet Company dashboard up until 9am the day before the meeting or at any time during the live presentation.

Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet DEKEL AGRI-VISION PLC via:

https://www.investormeetcompany.com/dekel-agri-vision-plc/register-investor

Investors who already follow DEKEL AGRI-VISION PLC on the Investor Meet Company platform will automatically be invited.

An updated presentation will be uploaded to the Company's website on the morning of the call which will be referred to throughout the call. 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ('MAR').  Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

*ENDS*

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.dekelagrivision.com or contact:

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

For the first half of 2021, Dekel Agri-Vision reported record revenues and EBITDA for its palm oil operations and is on the cusp of production for its Tiebissou cashew processing project.

Revenues were up by 40.9% to €21.7 million; EBITDA rose by 105.3% to €3.9 million; net profits were also up by 400% to €2.0 million: the Company's first half financial performance, specifically that of our producing project, the crude palm oil ('CPO') operation at Ayenouan, Cote d'Ivoire, together with the advancement of the Cashew project to imminent production, by a number of measures represents the strongest H1 interim results we have reported since joining AIM.

Ayenouan Palm Oil Project

The table below shows the improved first half performance at Ayenouan compared to H1 2020.  It also shows a summary of our results for the last six years. 

Clearly, the stand-out drivers of Dekel's very strong performance in H1 2021 are:

-      CPO pricing, the highest price achieved since operations commenced; and

-      FFB collected, the second highest since operations commenced

Global CPO prices continue to remain strong early in the second half of 2021, with even higher prices in the range of €900-950 per tonne being achieved in Q3 to date.  Whilst a host of factors impact the short-term pricing of CPO at a macro level, global stock levels remain relatively tight as low stock levels in the key producing nations pre Covid-19 are coupled together with improving demand as global markets reopen, resulting in higher CPO consumption levels.  Should prices continue at current levels, we are well positioned to deliver a strong H2 2021 during the low season and potentially even a further improvement in results in the next high season in H1 2022.

Whilst CPO prices are supportive, we continue to work hard to maximise our production levels.   As previously reported, 2012 saw the start of a major multi-year planting programme in the region.  It takes on average 6-8 years for plants to mature, so we are now entering a period where this planting should start to bear fruit.  With strong local community relationships, critical infrastructure in place and proven logistics networks established, Ayenouan is in a strong position to capitalise on any increase in local fruit production.  We also continue to work hard to foster close relationships with the local community to secure supplies - supplying discounted plants from our nursery; setting up logistics hubs to facilitate delivery of fruit to the mill, and rolling out fertiliser programmes with innovative funding mechanisms to encourage the use of fertiliser at a manageable cost to the farmer.  In 2021, we added a health insurance initiative for our small farmers and their families, which has been very well received by the community at a challenging time during Covid-19. 

Tiebissou Cashew Project

While COVID-19 led to a delay in the commencement of construction work and later in the process also hampered international shipping logistic timetables, first production remains on course for Q4 2021.  This is a challenging yet exciting period with the major initial goal being to stabilise operations by year end 2021, before striving to ramp up production considerably in 2022, the first full year of production.  It is expected that after stabilising operations the Cashew project can quickly become cash generative for the Company.

We believe in time, the Cashew project could potentially exceed the Palm Oil project in terms of profit contribution to the Group.  The Cashew project is being developed in such a way that capacity can be increased significantly in short order.  With a nameplate capacity of 15,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), production at the plant can be ramped up by 50% at no extra cost by simply increasing the number of shifts from two to three.   From 15,000tpa and at a cost of €5-6 million, the mill's capacity can be doubled to 30,000tpa, which we estimate could generate revenues in the region of €40 million per annum based on today's prices. 

Other projects

With Ayenouan firmly established and Tiebissou set to commence production within the next 50 days low-cost work continues to be carried out to establish a pipeline of projects in line with our objective to build Dekel into a major West Africa-focused, agro-industrial business.  Proceeding cautiously is the order of the day with regards to these plans given the current uncertain macro environment. 

Our ambitions in clean energy remain and we continue low-cost work in the background as part of our medium-term strategy to develop a biomass project utilising the empty fruit bunch waste materials and we have similar aspirations with the Cashew processing plant, where cashew shells can underpin a biomass project at the Cashew project site.

Also, as previously disclosed, we have identified a third commodity which is now in external feasibility where we believe we can leverage our existing infrastructure, logistics network and technical expertise.   As with the clean energy joint venture, current work is low cost and will remain so, at least until Tiebissou is up and running.

Environment, Social, and Governance ("ESG")

During H1, RSPO certification pre-audit work was conducted by Proforest, an Oxford-based environmental consultancy.  Over the past few months, we have been working on the audit points which are primarily of an administrative nature and we believe will be ready for the final audit process in H2 this year.  Organising consultant visits to complete both internal work and external audits has been and remains challenging due to Covid-19 but we can now see a pathway to completion for this project which remains one of our top priorities.  The main unknown at this stage is booking the timing of the final RSPO certification process review, which we are coordinating and will update the market once set dates are put in place.  Once certified, Ayenouan will be one of the few operations in the region with the RSPO stamp of approval.  Together with the clear social benefits our palm oil project, as well as our cashew project will deliver, we believe the Company can be proud of its ESG credentials.

Financial

During the six-month period under review, total revenues at Ayenouan were €21.7 million, a 40.9% increase on the €15.4 million reported for H1 2020.  A 35.7% increase in CPO prices achieved and a 11.0% increase in CPO production were the key drivers of the increase in Revenue.  This also flowed through to the profit lines where EBITDA increased by 105.3% to €3.9m and net profit after tax increased by 400% to €2.0m.

While Ayenouan has always been a low-cost and efficient operation, with like-for-like group overheads related to the Palm Oil operation remaining at €1.4m.  An additional €0.3m relates to new overheads associated with the Cashew operation.  Whilst the cashew overheads will increase as production commences there are substantial synergies in the overhead line meaning the majority of gross profit delivered from the Cashew project is expected to fall direct to the bottom line.

Outlook

In spite of the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Company was still able to achieve record H1 results and the outlook for Dekel is looking very positive.  The Ayenouan palm oil project is firmly established and moving from strength to strength; the Tiebissou cashew project is set to commence production within the next 50 days and there is a healthy pipeline of possible new projects under review in line with our objective to build Dekel into a major West Africa-focused, agro-industrial business.  As always, I would like to thank the Board, management, our employees and advisers for their support and hard work over the course of H1 and I look forward to continuing working with them closely during what promises to be an exciting period for Dekel.

Andrew Tillery

Non-Executive Chairman                                                                          Date: 20 September 2021

DEKEL AGRI-VISION PLC.

INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

AS OF 30 JUNE 2021

EUROS IN THOUSANDS

UNAUDITED

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