5th Jan 2007 11:45
REA Finance B.V.05 January 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5 January 2007 Further issue of sterling notes by REA Finance B.V. (the "issuer") a whollyowned subsidiary of R.E.A. Holdings plc (the "company") and update regardingtrading by the company and its subsidiaries (the "group") Further issue of sterling notes The issuer and the company announce that they have today concluded arrangementswith Guy Butler Limited for the placing of £7,000,000 nominal of 9.5 per centguaranteed sterling notes 2015/17 of the issuer ("sterling notes") at an issueprice of 99.6754 per cent of par, payable in full on subscription. Theredemption yield at the issue price on the date of issue will be 9.75 per cent. The sterling notes now being issued (the "further sterling notes") form a secondand final tranche of an issue of £22,000,000 nominal of sterling notes that havebeen constituted pursuant to a trust deed dated 1 December 2006 and made betweenthe issuer, the company and Capita Trust Company Limited. £15,000,000 nominalof sterling notes are already in issue, having been issued for cash at 98.33 percent of par on 4 December 2006. The further sterling notes will rank pari passu in all respects with thesterling notes previously issued. As such, they will be direct and securedobligations of the issuer, will be unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed bythe company, will bear interest at 9.5 per cent per annum payable half yearly on30 June and 31 December (but as respects interest payable on 30 June 2007calculated as if it accrued from 4 December 2006) and will be redeemable bythree equal annual instalments commencing 31 December 2015 (subject to reductionwhere sterling notes have been previously purchased by the issuer and cancelled,in which event the amount of sterling notes to be redeemed on any givenredemption date will be reduced by the nominal amount of sterling notespurchased and cancelled prior to that redemption date save in so far as suchnotes were purchased and cancelled prior to a previous redemption date and takeninto account in reducing the note redemption requirement in relation to thatprevious redemption date). The proceeds of issue of the further sterling notes are estimated to amount to£6.82 million, net of estimated expenses of £155,000 (including a placingcommission payable to Guy Butler Limited). It is intended that the proceeds ofthe issue will be on-lent by the issuer to PT REA Kaltim Plantations andprincipally applied by that company in repayment of, or in substitution for,bank borrowings in Indonesia. Application has been made for the further sterling notes to be admitted to theOfficial List of the Financial Services Authority and to trading on the EEARegulated Market of the London Stock Exchange plc. It is expected that suchadmissions will become effective and that dealings in the further sterling noteswill commence on 24 January 2007. The issue price of the further sterling notes of 99.6754 per cent of par isequivalent to the price of 98.33 per cent of par at which the initial tranche of£15,000,000 nominal of sterling notes was issued on 4 December 2006 plus 51 daysof interest treated as accruing from 4 December 2006 to 24 January 2007. The further sterling notes will be issued on the basis of the base prospectuspublished by the issuer on 4 December 2006 and a document setting out the finalterms of issue of the further sterling notes that the issuer is now publishing.Copies of these documents have been or are being submitted to the UK ListingAuthority, and will be available for inspection at the UK Listing Authority'sDocument Viewing Facility, which is situated at: Financial Services Authority,25 The North Colonnade,Canary Wharf,London E14 5HSTelephone: 020 7676 1000 Copies may also be inspected at the offices of R.E.A Holdings plc at 3rd Floor,40-42 Osnaburgh Street, London NW1 3ND, in electronic form on the websitemaintained by the company at www.rea.co.uk and the London Stock Exchange plc'swebsite under Paste the following link into your web browser to download the PDF documentrelated to this announcement: http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/0462p_-2007-1-5.pdf Trading update FFB production for 2006 amounted to 333,000 tonnes. This represented an increaseof some 6 per cent on the FFB crop of 2005 of 313,000 tonnes but a shortfall of9 per cent on the 2006 budgeted crop of 353,000 tonnes. The failure to achievethe budgeted crop can be attributed to reduced rainfall in the second half ofthe year, coupled with a normal cyclic depression in the cropping cycle,resulting in lower cropping levels in the second half. Rainfall for 2006 as a whole amounted to 2,967 mm. Whilst this was considerablylower than the rainfall of the preceding year, which was closer to 5,000 mm, itwas still well above the minimum level of rainfall generally regarded asnecessary for oil palm cultivation. However, the pattern of rainfall during theyear was characteristic of an El Nino weather event. The usual onset of heavierrains in September was delayed until November while December rainfall wasunevenly distributed. The directors do not believe that the unusual pattern of2006 rainfall will have resulted in anything more than minor water deficits insome estate areas. Accordingly, the FFB crop for 2007 has been budgeted at380,000 tonnes with the expected increase over 2006 reflecting a budgetaryassumption of average rainfall (both as to quantum and distribution) and thematuring of the 3,000 hectares of oil palms planted by the group in 2004 (beingthe first extension planting by the group under the new extension plantingprogramme initiated in 2003). The directors anticipate that crops for 2007 willbe weighted towards the second half of the year. The group exceeded its development target for 2006 of 6,000 hectares by some 500hectares, taking the total developed area of the group's estates at 31 December2006 to slightly under 25,000 hectares. The 500 hectare excess over the 2006target will be set against the 2007 development target of 7,000 hectares. The current CPO price level of approaching $600 per tonne CIF Rotterdam comparesfavourably with the corresponding price level at the start of 2006 of $420 pertonne. The directors believe that the higher prices at which CPO is now tradingreflect market perceptions that the balance between CPO supply and demand istightening. Enquiries R.E.A Holdings plc 020 7419 0100Richard Robinow This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
R.e.a.hldgs.