Camellia swings to loss as climate change dampens outlook

The AIM-traded firm said its headline profit before tax was £26.5m, up marginally from £26.4m, with the loss from discontinued operations widening to £20m from £3.6m.

Its loss for the year was £5.9m, swinging from a profit of £7.2m, while losses per share totalled 387.4p, compared to earnings of 50.7p in the prior year.

The board proposed a final dividend of 95p, precisely in line with 2015, taking the total dividend for the year to 130p, marginally ahead of the 129p shareholders enjoyed in the prior period.

“2016 saw improved performance from all three of our trading divisions reflecting the increased focus arising from the managerial changes announced last year,” said chairman Malcolm Perkins.

“It also saw the decision to withdraw from our investment in Duncan Lawrie and the resultant disposals of the operating units of that business, the full financial impact of which will be recorded over two financial years, with the anticipated profit on the disposal of Duncan Lawrie Asset Management of £19.2m being reflected in the 2017 results."

Perkins said the outlook for 2017 remained uncertain, with climate change - in the form of erratic rainfall patterns, heat waves and storm - making the prediction of crop volumes difficult.

“For example, the start of 2017 has seen droughts continuing in parts of South Africa and significantly reduced rainfall in Kenya and parts of the tea growing areas in India.

“The impact of this on production volumes and prices has yet to be established.

“The continuing low oil price provides a challenge to our oil service based engineering businesses, however the resilience of the UK economy has seen the other UK based businesses busier than they have been for some time.”