Great. Ladies and gentlemen, good to see that everybody has a seat. It is now 12 noon, the time appointed for the annual general meeting. I have great pleasure in welcoming you to the meeting. A quorum of two members is required, and I confirm that more than this number is present. I'm also pleased to inform you that the meeting today is being live-streamed and recorded, so the shareholders and other stakeholders who cannot be present can view it live or watch it on the company's website in due course. I'm pleased to confirm that I am joined today by my colleagues on the board. Sadly, though, without Tania, who I think we will let off, because she is in Iceland for a family reunion of 150 family members, which had been planned long ago.
So we wish her well for that, and I'm sure she will be back here next year. I would, though, just like to take the opportunity to say on behalf of myself, on behalf of the board, and I think on behalf of all shareholders, there are seats at the front, by the way. A huge thank you to my colleague, Bruce, who has served on the board magnificently for the last nine years and will be retiring in his capacity as a non-executive director. For the last number of years, he has been our senior independent director, as well as chair of both the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee. Bruce has so many different skill sets and areas of knowledge and expertise. It's hard to enumerate, but amongst them, banking, commodities, agriculture, ESG, many, many others.
So, yours will clearly be a tough act to follow, but I know that we'll stay in touch with you and you with us, and I'm sure we'll be seeing you again at these meetings. But you've been... Your contribution to the board has been invaluable in terms of the wise counsel that you've offered us, and you've been a great and loyal support to us. So thank you so much. And I am, at the same time, pleased to confirm that Kate Coppinger, not yet quite a director, but nonetheless, has sneaked onto the top table about an hour ahead of her official appointment to the board following Bruce's retirement, will be joining as our new independent director.
Kate has a lot of experience in commodities, particularly oil and gas, both as an executive. She's Managing Director of Standard Chartered Oil and Gas, before several years ago, going to a more sectoral role as a non-executive director of a number of AIM-listed, in particular, companies, specializing particularly in oil and gas. But there are many sort of parallels, and she has experience as chair of both Audit Co, Rem Co, and as a senior independent director, and will immediately take on the role of our Remuneration Committee chair. So, welcome, Kate, very shortly to our, to our board. I'm also pleased to confirm that, as was announced recently, Michael, who's been with us now for three years, something like that. Yes, yes.
And whose advice we value hugely has made a massive contribution to the board already, and I have a great pleasure in confirming that he will be taking on the role of Senior Independent Director and as Chair of the Audit Committee. So, another person I might just mention, although he didn't necessarily want me to, but is Ravi Chandran. Do you just want to stand up for a moment, just to embarrass you completely, Ravi? Ravi is President Director of our Indonesian operations, based in Jakarta, but travels around all our estates, so a very important person. And he took over from Chandra a couple of years ago, and we have huge confidence in what Ravi is doing.
So please feel free to ask Ravi about any part of our operations, perhaps more informally afterwards. Right. Actually, there's one other person I thought I would mention, and that is a very delightful and colorful shareholder who's sadly no longer with us. A gentleman named Michael Turner, who used to come to our meetings year after year and would grill us. One was always slightly quaking in one's shoes when he used to stand up, but always with a little twinkle in his eye, and was actually a huge supporter, fiercely loyal to the company and indeed to, I think, all the other European plantation companies. I'm delighted that his daughter, Rosemary, and grandson, Robin, are both here as shareholders as well.
We think of and remember your father very fondly. So as you may be aware, the company released a trading update this morning, a very positive one, covering the first five months of 2025. Copies of this have been distributed in the room, should you wish to review it. Now, my colleague, Matthew, our Chief Executive, will make a short presentation.
Thank you, Peter. So just to first of all, go through a few points about 2024, and then move on and talk a little bit about the content of the trading statement for 2025. And as Peter said, I will certainly keep things brief. First of all, a quick reminder for you of two very important things. First of all, our key strategic pillars, the four key strategic pillars we hold dear to our hearts at M.P. Evans, are being a responsible producer, striving for excellence in all of our operations, and of course, focusing on growth and ensuring we focus on offering an increasing yield. And we'll come back to those themes as we go through the presentation. And then, you can see on the map, a reminder of where we operate.
We operate across a very wide part of Indonesia, from the northern end of North Sumatra, all the way through to the very eastern tip of East Kalimantan. So a very wide geographical spread. We may be focused on a single country, but across a very wide part of that single country. Those red dots indicate where we have, by the end of 2024, around 66,000 hectares of planted oil palm that we manage. And as I say, focusing for a moment on the results for 2024, we're not ashamed to say that we think they were outstanding results, record results for the group for 2024. And you can see some of those key metrics illustrated there on the slide. So gross profit, up by almost a half on the previous year, up by 49%, and earnings per share up by even more.
Earnings per share, up by two-thirds on the previous year. Earnings per share of almost GBP 1.30. So we're very pleased to be able to share those results with you today, and I'm sure you may have some questions about them when we get to that part of our meeting today. Obviously, as I say, one of the key strategic pillars is all about progressive returns, and you get a sense of what that's looked like over the last decade on this slide. So going back to 2014 and 2015, the total dividends per share were less than GBP 0.10. Roll forward to the dividends in respect of 2024, the interim dividend that was paid last November, and the final dividend that is being proposed today, and you add those together, and we're at more than GBP 0.50 per share.
So a huge change, as you can see illustrated on that chart. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to those of you who've listened to me before, that I can't help but talk a little bit more about the first plank of our strategic pillars, the R for responsibility. We're very proud of what we do at M.P. Evans, and it's always important to illustrate what that looks like in practice. Two pictures on this slide to illustrate what that looks like in practice. On the left-hand side, you can see some mangrove forest. And it is an illustration of an area that we took on in 2024, an area, going back to the map, that's adjacent to our very eastern tip of East Kalimantan project.
It's the area we call Bumi Mas, where we've been able to secure an area next to our planted area of over 1,000 hectares, actually 1,400 hectares of mangrove forest, which we will actively conserve. So it's nothing to do with planting, it's nothing to do with fresh fruit bunches and crude palm oil. It's purely for conservation. And as I'm sure many of you know, mangrove forests are hugely important from a sustainability and conservation perspective. We estimate that sequestered within that mangrove forest is over 500,000 tons of CO2 equivalent. So we're very proud of what we've been able to achieve there. On the right-hand side is another example of what our teams are doing actively within our estates. We've set up a biodiversity team within our Bangka estate on Bangka Island, just off South Sumatra.
And there, they're taking active steps to think about how we can increase biodiversity across our estates. And it's a really good example to talk about, with, with everybody here, because it's something we all intuitively understand, is planting hedgerows. Sounds very simple, but actually it makes a huge difference to biodiversity. As I look around the room, I recognize some faces who came with us to Bangka earlier this year and saw this happening in action, and saw already the difference that this is making. So it's another example of a project we're very proud of. And then I move on to thinking about what we're doing this year in 2025, and this is just to illustrate some of the things that are in the trading statement that was released today.
We've seen an increase in the crop that we are harvesting in the areas we manage. An increase of over 10% in the first five months of this year, which is fantastic to be able to report. We have deliberately restricted the amount of crop that we're buying in from outside suppliers. The crop we harvest is much, much better quality than the crop that we buy in from those outside suppliers. We're changing, we're actively changing our product mix that we put through our mills, and that's gonna make a big difference for us as we continue to do that. Obviously, you've seen the story of price in the first half, the first five months, of this year.
And the price that we sold our output for is significantly higher than the first five months of last year, up by over $100 per ton. So you take those two parts of the equation together, and we're very excited about what the first half is gonna bring for us. Oh, and I shouldn't forget, as well as the CPO, our secondary product, palm kernels, and the price that we're selling our palm kernels for is over 80% higher than the first five months of last year. While kernels are a smaller part of our output, that kind of price difference is gonna make a difference to our overall results as well. And then thinking about growth. So thinking about as we go through our strategic pillars: responsibility, excellence, growth, and yield.
We're continuing to grow as well. We're continuing to plant new areas in our existing estates. We're continuing to plant in South Sumatra, at a project called Musi Rawas, and we're continuing to plant in some of our more recently acquired areas. You remember we acquired an area called ABK in 2023, where we're planting more hectares there as well. And excitingly, as we announced in April, we're just in the process of buying an additional area close to our Bumi Mas project on the eastern tip of East Kalimantan as well. Take all of this together, and we fully expect to hit another milestone before we get to the end of 2025. We fully expect to be over 70,000 planted hectares managed as well.
I hope you get the sense from that, that not only are we very pleased to be able to share with you and talk about the 2024 results today, but we think there's lots of good stuff coming in 2025 as well. With that, I'll hand back to Peter.
Thank you, Matthew. My colleagues and I will now be pleased to deal with any general questions or particular points on the report and financial statements, which shareholders, present at the meeting would like to raise. Please raise your hands and wait until the microphone reaches you before speaking, if there are any questions.
Could I ask that can be harvested by machines rather than... Sorry, rather than by hand?
That's. Shall we pass that to one of the agri-, that's Chandra, should we ask? Would you like to answer that one, Chandra? As our agricultural, one of our two agriculturalists on the board.
Can the trees be bred to a lower level? Oil palm breeding has concentrated on shortening the height of palms, but not to the extent yet to be very easily mechanized. Because, you see, for a machine to get into a piece of land planted with oil palm, you need to basically get the infrastructure right. Right now, most companies in their second cycle and their third cycle are already preparing fields for mechanization. I must also highlight that there has yet been found a machine that's suitable to harvest, but there are many trials going on in Indonesia and Malaysia, working towards mechanical harvesting. Thank you.
Yes, it's interesting that both in the rubber and the oil palm sector, majority of the, you know, whether it's, you know, rubber trees or oil palms, are still, most of the work is done by hand. Although there is increasing work going on to help to mechanize, and there is some experimentation with smaller palms that so as not to have such long poles necessary. So, but they're still working on, I think, so they're coming. Any other questions? Yes.
Thank you. Mark Atkinson, private investor. Two questions, please, Mr. Chairman. Firstly, on the acquisitions, the area is described as relatively young, with nothing being planted before 2016. Could you give some kind of guidance as to when you expect this will reach its full potential? And secondly, on the EUDR, which comes into effect in January 2026, this will require supply chains of products sold in the European Union to be free of deforestation. Now, neither do we participate in deforestation or import into Europe, but the EU will have the power to fine a company up to 4% of their European turnover for non-compliance. So this is a lucrative incentive for the EU to fight against businesses, and I would expect them to be zealous in their execution.
Is there any risk to us?
... of fine contagion simply through administrative oversights?
Mm-hmm. Do you want me to answer that? There's just a potential for on the acquisition.
Yep, so why don't address both of those questions, Mark? Thank you. So for the acquisitions that we're contemplating and working through completing at the moment, as you say, it's all relatively young planting. We expect it will take some years for it to come to its full potential for two reasons. One, because we think there's an opportunity for us to add value for improving the agronomy and improving the management in that area, which is something that we identify in a number of the acquisitions that we do. But two, more simply because it is still quite young, and so the average age, I think, is, what was it? The oldest planting was of 2016, making them, you know, less than 10 years old. The average age, of course, is much younger.
So there are many years over which the yield will increase naturally as it comes to its full potential as the palms mature. So there is some time, I don't have an exact number of years, but it's gonna take between five and 10 years before it will reach its full potential, just through its natural maturing. So there is some time for us to enjoy an increase in benefit from the yield coming through from that estate we are acquiring. On the EUDR point, we see it far more as an opportunity than as a risk. We don't see there being a significant concern because of the way we've approached everything we've done responsibly for a very long time, that we see that sort of contagion risk that you describe.
We see far more an opportunity for us to explore ways in which we can engage with customers and form part of the supply chain of EUDR oil, which potentially then, it's all somewhat to be determined because it's still being worked out by our customers who will then form a supply into Europe. But we see far more of an opportunity to form part of that supply chain and access higher premiums than the kind of risks that you describe.
Any more questions? Yes.
Good afternoon. My name is Phil Clark, a very happy long-term shareholder. It's good to be here. First of all, many congratulations on the fabulous results. It's completely glorious to be a shareholder.
I know you're not complacent. The extraction rates from our mills is about 23% or so. How do you benchmark that? How do you know that's a good rate, and can we learn from others in terms of how we improve our yields and similarly for the crop? How do we benchmark that, and how do we know we're doing well?
Would you say that again, Matthew?
Yes. Absolutely. A very good question. It can be difficult to benchmark, but we do have access to some information from other mills in other companies to give us a good guide to where we sit within the pack. There is some public data available that we can look at to get a sense of benchmarking. We believe that 23%, 23 +, actually, that we achieve is a very good extraction rate, and we're very pleased to be able to achieve it. As you say, we are absolutely not complacent, and our mill and estate teams work in close harmony to look at ways in which we can continue to improve our extraction rate.
One of the ways in which we want to focus on improving our extraction rate is to think about the product mix that we put through or the fruit mix that we put through our mills. And this comes back to the point that was being made earlier about the way in which we're harvesting more and more of our own crop from our own estates, which we believe, well, we don't just believe, we know, is of a much better quality, and restricting and reducing the amount of crop we buy in from outside suppliers, which we know is of a lower quality and leads to a lower extraction rate. So if you change that product mix and do more of your own crop through your own mills and less of bought in crops through your own mills, that has the effect of improving your extraction rate.
We're doing that. We want to do more of it.
Thank you. Any more questions?
Yes, Matthew.
I'm very impressed by the facilities you've provided for the new staff, the houses, and what have you. To what extent are the tenants or the occupants of these houses sort of responsible for their upkeep and the general upkeep of the facilities in the villages that you set up?
That's Ravi.
Yeah. Ravi, are you happy to answer that question since you're really close to it and you've been involved so much? Do you need a mic? That's it. I think he needs a mic. It might be better with a mic, actually. I think it's better with a mic. Yeah, yeah.
We have a lot of houses in the plantation, which we provide for the staff. We have a maintenance program every year. We have a civil engineering team on the ground, and they will carry out the maintenance program every year, take care of the quality. Okay? Apart from that, we also give housemaids to every staff to, you know, some of the staff will be, like, singles. They don't really care for the cleanliness of the house, okay? So we give housemaids, so they, to take care of the cleanliness of the house. So that, that's how we, we take care of the quality.
Okay.
Thank you.
Yes. I mean, I would add that it's, I think, one of the features of M.P. Evans, is that we do provide the highest quality of housing, school facilities, particularly in remote areas, clubhouse facilities, and this all feeds into the theme of the REGY: responsibility, excellence, growth, and yield. Because, by being responsible and providing excellent facilities, it helps to retain people. So, senior managers and staff who wouldn't otherwise perhaps be willing to go and live in such remote locations, because of the high quality of the facilities, not least the excellent schooling for their children, are happy to go. So it all ties in together. Sorry, next question.
Yeah, I was just saying, we've got 43 staff, and 4 bad people.
No, it is maintained to a high standard.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions? Yes.
I'm Richard Snelling.
Hello.
I'm a very happy and fairly long-term shareholder. What I wanted to ask for is, do you have any serious competitors, and who they might be, in the palm oil business?
Well, funny enough, in a sense, we're not really competing with other palm oil companies. I mean, we are a tiny part, a tiny cog in the palm oil wheel, in that we account for less than 0.5% of all palm oil that is produced. And in a sense, it's actually good to compare notes with our peers, such as with our friends at KLK, who are shareholders in us, and they're much bigger operators than us. They have many more hectares, but it's really good to compare notes with each other. In a sense, the competitors are more the other vegetable oil, vegetable oils that are produced, the biggest being soya oil.
But we tend to be more competitive in terms of palm oil versus soy oil, because our costs tend to be lower. And we also, as an Indonesian, an efficient Indonesian palm oil producer, have a comparative advantage over Malaysia, where costs are generally higher. So we do have a natural, if you like, edge over producers there. But we don't think of ourselves as competitors with other palm oil companies. Any other questions? Yes.
Is there any problem in obtaining labor on outlying estates?
Any issues with the labor, do you say? In obtaining labor.
Quality of labor.
Do you want to answer, Matthew, or just...?
Yeah. In essence, no, we haven't found there to be an issue with obtaining labor. I mean, it varies a little bit, location by location. As you saw in the presentation, we're very geographically diverse across Indonesia. In the northern parts of Sumatra, the industry is a little bit more mature, shall we say, whereas in South Sumatra and in East Kalimantan, oil palm is that little bit newer. So obtaining skilled workers can be a little bit more challenging and will require a need for a little bit more training to ensure that we have the people capable and enabled to do all the necessary skilled tasks within our operations. But other than that, at this stage, no.
I mean, Indonesia is a huge country with a very large population, so access to a workforce has not really been a big issue for us.
Thanks, Matthew. Any more questions? Right. Well, thank you so much, and, of course, you have every opportunity to continue to ask us questions after the formalities of this are finished, which shouldn't be too long, and we can get outside again. So I shall now proceed with the formal part of the meeting. As the... I might put my specs on, just for good order. As the notice of the meeting has been in the hands of members for the statutory period, may I please take it as read? Thank you. The independent auditor's report to the members of M.P. Evans Group PLC is set out on pages 58 to 63 in the annual reports and accounts. The report is on the group financial statements, including the parent company financial statements.
May I take it as read? Thank you. Voting today will be conducted on a show of hands. May I remind you that shareholders who are present here, in person or by corporate representative, are entitled to one vote on a show of hands. A proxy who is present and has been duly appointed by a shareholder entitled to vote, also has one vote on a show of hands. Please do not raise your hand if you're not a shareholder or a formally appointed representative or proxy. Resolutions 1 to 6 are proposed as ordinary resolutions and require a simple majority to be passed. Resolution 7 is proposed as a special resolution, which requires a majority of 75% to pass. We received proxies in respect of 23,305,532 shares.
Copies of a schedule detailing proxy voting instructions for, against, or withheld, received in relation to each resolution, have been distributed in the room. A vote withheld is not a vote and nor is it not counted in the calculation of the proportion of the votes for and against. With that in mind, I'm pleased to confirm that of the votes cast, not fewer than 92% are in favor of all resolutions. A breakdown of the results of the proxy voting is set out in the printed out schedule. The reports and financial statements have been sent or made available by digital means to all members, and I hope they provide shareholders with a clear explanation of the group's strategy, its activities, and its profit and financial position as at the thirty-first of December 2024.
I now propose, as Resolution 1, that the reports of the directors and the audited financial statements for the year ended thirty-first of December 2024, now laid before the meeting, be received. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carried. I now propose, as Resolution 2, that the directors' remuneration report, as set out in the annual report and audited financial statements for the year ended thirty-first of December 2024, now laid before the meeting, be received. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carries. I have pleasure in proposing, as Resolution 3, that Mr. K. Chandra Sekaran be re-elected a director of the company. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carried.
I nominate Bruce to put Resolution 4 to the vote.
Thank you, Peter. I have pleasure in proposing, as Resolution four, that Mr. Peter Handley- Chapman be re-elected director of the company. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carried.
Thank you. I now propose, as Resolution 5, that a final dividend of GBP 0.375 per share, be declared payable, be declared payable on or after the 19th of June 2025, in respect of the year ended, on 31st of December 2024, to all holders of shares on the register of members of the company at the close of business on the 25th of April 2025. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carried.
I now propose, as Resolution 6, that BDO LLP, chartered accountants and registered auditors, be appointed auditors of the company to hold office from the conclusion of the meeting until the conclusion of the next meeting, at which financial statements are laid before the company in accordance with Section 4371, Companies Act 2006, at a fee to be determined by the directors. I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? I declare the resolution carried. I now move on to the special business of the meeting and propose as a special resolution, the resolution as set out in the notice of meeting number 7. The resolution gives the authority for the company to purchase up to 10% of its own shares during the coming year, as and when the directors consider it appropriate.
I put the resolution to the meeting. Those in favor? Those against? Okay, maybe one or two. I declare the resolution carried. Now, before concluding the business of the meeting, it's always been customary for a shareholder kindly to propose a vote of thanks to our staff overseas, who, as you know, perform the most extraordinary job, all 12,000 of them. And if somebody were kind enough to be... Our normal proposer, Christopher Moore, doesn't appear to be with us, I don't think. But is there somebody else who's... Yes, thank you very much. That, that's very kind. That will be conveyed. No doubt, Ravi can take the message back back to Jakarta, and convey that to all concerned. So thank you all very much for attending.
You are now invited to join us for some light refreshments in the courtyard. I think the sun is shining, and hopefully we will remain dry, and I think it will for the next hour or two at least. Please join us there. Thank you again for coming.