Asian Citrus Holdings Ltd Summer Orange Harvest and Update (1853K)

TIDMACHL

RNS Number : 1853K

Asian Citrus Holdings Ltd

20 June 2014

For immediate release 20 June 2014

Asian Citrus Holdings Limited

("Asian Citrus" or "the Company")

Summer Orange Harvest and Update

Asian Citrus announces that the actual summer orange crop yield of the Group's Hepu Plantation for current period was approximately 49,540 tonnes (Financial Year ended 30 June 2013: 57,367 tonnes). This is below the tonnage indication given in the Summer Orange Crop statement of 24 March 2014, when the Company announced that it had signed supplier agreements to supply 57,000 tonnes of summer oranges. The production yield from Hepu Plantation has, as previously announced, yet to return to volumes reported prior to the citrus canker, but production was also impacted by frosts at Hepu earlier this year.

Reflecting this and the factors highlighted in previous announcements, the total annual production volume of oranges for the Group decreased from approximately 218,600 tonnes to about 197,467 tonnes in the current year, which represents a decrease of approximately 9.7%.

The processed fruits business, which involves the manufacture and sale of fruit juice concentrates, purees and frozen fruits and vegetables, has seen production tonnage volumes in line with the first half year but continued margin pressure.

The assessment of the net change in fair value of biological assets for the year ending 30 June 2014 is still under review. The Board wishes to emphasise that the net change in fair value of biological assets is non-operational and does not have any effect on cash flow of the Group.

Based on the preliminary assessment of the unaudited financial information and management accounts of the Group, the turnover and core net profit(#) for the year ending 30 June 2014 is expected to be in line with current market expectations, albeit, as announced previously, lower than that reported in the prior year ended 30 June 2013.

The full year results of the Group for the year ending 30 June 2014 are expected to be published in September 2014.

(#) Core net profit refers to profit for the period excluding change in fair value of biological assets and share-based payments.

For further enquiries please contact:

 
 Asian Citrus 
 Mark Ng, Chief Financial 
  Officer                           [phone] 
 
 Cantor Fitzgerald Europe 
  (NOMAD and Broker) 
 Rick Thompson / David Foreman      [phone] 
  (Corporate Finance)                7000 
 Richard Redmayne (Corporate 
  Broking) 
                                    [phone] 
 Weber Shandwick Financial           0000 
 Nick Oborne, Stephanie Badjonat 
 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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