Hi all. I am new to Stockopedia and would be interested to hear other peoples views on the following company Anglo-eastern Plantations (LON:AEP) - Recently covered in IC by Simon Thompson, was initially covered in 2020 Bargain Shares Portfolio at 570p. To the novice eye, it looks a like a reasonable company to be able to expand portfolio into the Asian region with promising growth.
Information: A producer of crude palm oil (CPO) from 16 plantations spread across 74,131 hectares in Indonesia and Malaysia. Business doesn’t appear to be severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic as plantations are reported to be in remote locations, away from main cities with lower population densities and in turn lower infection rates.
Website: www.angloeastern.co.uk/about-us/our-business
Stock Rank: 65 (Quality = 88, Value = 85, Momentum = 10)
Screens Passed: 6 long (John Templeton bargain screen, Benjamin Graham defensive investor screen, James O'Shaugnessy cornerstone growth screen, Benjamin Graham enterprising invest screen, Piotroski F-Score price to book value screen, The Naked Trader-esque screen and the screen of screens)
Holders: -82.21% of Shares are held by major shareholders. Genton International limited (a registered company Hong Kong controlled by Mdm S K Lim (who is a non-executive chairman) controls a 51.85% majority (a little skeptical at the majority of holdings being with one person).
Financials:
-MCAP: £257M
-Total Revenue: £347M
-Operating Profit: £90M
-Return on Capital: 15.4%
-Return on Equity: 14%
-Operating Margin: 26%
-Net profit: £59.8M
-Cash: £161M
-Current Ratio: 5.83
-Quick Ratio: 5.46
-Book Value/Share: 1,145
-Price to Book/Value: 0.78
RNS (26/08/2021):
-Recent H1 RNS stated that “H1 revenue increase by 63% to $201.1M”, “Gross profit margin increase to 29.8% from 17.7%”.
-Indonesian Government reduced CPO export levy at the start of July 2021, to $175per mt when CPO prices exceed $1,000 per mt (a $80 per mt reduction).
-Spot price of CPO appears to be holding at around $1,200 per mt.
I would be interested to hear the views of other investors here? as to whether this is a 'buy', 'shortlist' or, 'avoid'. - Momentum does seem low at the moment, but with recent H1 results being promising I was speculating that this may add more buying volume?
