Consolidated profits for the year amounted to $30.959 million compared with
$21.904 million in 2006. The significant improvement, much of it registered in
the final quarter of 2007, arose from materially better contributions from the
Company's two major associate company investments, United Plantations Berhad
(“United Plantations”) and AarhusKarlshamn AB (“AAK”).
Neither AAK nor United Plantations, the two investments that constitute the
bulk of the Company's portfolio, issue profit estimates and as a result the
ability of the Company to respond with an estimate of its own is constrained.
However, taking the continued strength of palm oil prices into account, coupled
with the current recovery in production at United Plantations and the continued
strength of AAK's confectionery business in particular, and presuming the
negative impact of the Aarhus explosion can be contained, there seems good
reason to anticipate continued improvement in the 2008 result relative to the
previous year.
