NEW ACQUISITION : PROGRESS OF CURRENT

Ton Fourth Annual General Meeting of Seafield Amalgamated Rubber Company Limited was held on May. 15 in London, Mr. A. H. Marshall, M.A., F.C.A. (Chairman and Managing Director) presiding.

The following are extracts from his circulated statement: The Report and Accounts cover the year to 30th September, 1962.

ACQUISITIONS AND SALES

Harpenden : As announced in the Press on 9th August, 1962, the share capital of Harpenden (Selangor) Rubber Co., Ltd. was acquired for £420,000 cash. That Company owns a fine rubber estate of 1,632 acres adjoining our Bukit Estate. Harpenden Estate is virtually 100 per cent. replanted with pedigree material, of which some 75 per cent. is now mature.

Sales of land: Transactions affecting modest areas of land on our Estates near Kuala Lumpur and Kiang are in course of negotiation.

THE YEAR'S RESULTS This year we did not have the benefit of refunds of Anti-Inflationary Cess which last year swelled Group profits by over £112,000. Nevertheless Group Net Profits before tax show a reduction of only £111,194 from £954,244 to £843,050 after charging £219,558 for Depreciation and Amortisation.

Group Taxation takes £330,352 and Minority Interest £13,781, leaving £498,917 available for appropriation to reserve and for dividends. In view of the substantial oil palm conversion programme in hand, the Board have appropriated £140,000 to Development Reserve.

There remains a balance of £358,917. An Interim Dividend of 10 per cent. was paid on 19th November, 1962, and your Board now recommend a Final Divi- dend of 15 per cent. payable on 16th May, 1963. These two dividends absorb £354,338 and your Board propose that the balance of the year's profit of £4,579 be added to the unappropriated profit of earlier years, making the total profit unappropriated to date £86,749.

CROPS The crops harvested during the year were: Rubber .. .. 29,324,206 lb. (13,091 tons) Palm Oil .. 2,778 tons Palm Kernels 758 tons

The rubber crop includes 930,000 lb. harvested on HarPenden Estate in the nine months from 1st January. 1962. Crops show modest increases on those of the previous year, but the rubber crop was some 609,000 lb. below estimate.

Liquid Resources : The surplus of net Current Assets over Current Liabilities at 30th September. 1061, was £241,033. At 30th September, 1962, Current Liabilities exceeded net Current Assets by £154,181. Included in these Current Liabilities are items amounting to nearly £400,000 which do not fall to be paid for some eight or nine months after the end of the Company's year.

The proceeds of land already sold or requisitioned will go part of the way during the current year to- wards replenishing our resources, and it is expected that further sales will be made in the near future. Your Directors have, therefore, decided that in view of current trading conditions, the present position can he accepted pending the outcome of negotiations regarding land sales.

OPERATIONS THE YEAR'S OPERATIONS

Estates: Mr. Ritchie and 1 visited the Group's Estates in January and February this year, and were well pleased with all we saw. Mr. Givan, who has recently returned from Malaya, concurs with these views.

Rubber: The average yield per mature acre throughout the Group was 947 lb., an increase of 13 lb. over the previous year. The weather was not suitable for good crops and we have done well to exceed last year's figure. The yield on five out of seventeen Estates exceeded 1,000 lb. per acre, and on only one Estate fell below 800 lb. per acre.

During the year a further 1,429 acres were brought into tapping and 1,633 acres were taken out of tapping for replanting. Of this area, 663 acres are being replanted in rubber. For 1963 we plan to replant a further 476 acres in rubber.

Oil Palm : Yield per acre has remained static at 1.1 tons of produce per acre. Young areas yield modestly when first brought into the harvesting rounds, and substantial increases in average yield are unlikely to occur until some of the recently planted areas have been harvested for two or three years.

During the year some 286 acres reached maturity, and a further 1,599 acres have been planted in palms. For 1963 we plan to plant a further 1,121 acres with Oil Palms.

PROSPECTS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR

Estimated crops for the current year, and actual crops harvested for the six months to 31st March, 1963, are as follows:

Estimated Crop Year to 30th September, 1963 Rubber . .. 30,883,000 lb. (13,786 tons)

Palm Oil .. 2,860 tons Kernels .. 760 tons

Actual Crop Six Months to 31st March, 1963 Rubber .. . . 15,946,500 lb. (7,119 tons) Palm Oil 1,5,14 tons Kernels .. 389 tons Those areas being converted from rubber to oil palm are eligible for subsidy under the new Replant- ing Scheme recently announced.

Net average sale price of rubber for the current year to date has been 19.36d. per lb., compared with 19.24d. per lb. for the year to 30th September, 1962. Net average sale price of palm products for the current year has been £52.74 per ton as against £57.50 per ton for last year. It seems likely, there- fore, that sale proceeds for the current year will he rather lower than last year. Crops, on the other hand, should be rather higher. On balance, results for the year are likely to he similar to those for the year now under review.

Nigeria : Ilushin Estates Ltd., in which the Com- pany has a 6 per cent. interest, has now planted up the 5,000 acres which formed the original ob- jective. The Estate is developing very satisfactorily and it is planned to start tapping next October, six years after the first planting.

A second Company, Utagba Uno Rubber Estates Ltd., has started planting in the Mid-West Region of Nigeria and a shareholding has been taken up. Some 1,500 acres of jungle have been felled and arc in course of planting.

The report and accounts were adopted.