Rural Funds Group (ASX:RFF)
Australia flag Australia · Delayed Price · Currency is AUD
2.040
0.00 (0.00%)
Apr 28, 2026, 4:10 PM AEST
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: H2 2022

Aug 31, 2022

James Powell
General Manager of Investor Relations, Corporate Affairs, and Sustainability, Rural Funds Group

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Rural Funds Group Financial Results presentation for the full year ended 30th June 2022. My name is James Powell. Presenting today will be David Bryant, Managing Director, Tim Sheridan, Chief Operating Officer, and Daniel Yap, Chief Financial Officer. For your information, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. If you have any questions, please type it into the field you will be able to see on your screen at any time during the webinar, and we will address these at the end of the presentation. For those attendees who have dialed in via teleconference, press star one and we can unmute your line at the end of the presentation. Could all attendees please be advised that the webinar, including Q&A, will be recorded?

I'll now hand over to our first speaker, Tim Sheridan.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

Good morning, and thanks for your attendance. I'll start today's presentation with an overview of the FY 2022 financial results. Firstly, a quick recap of the activities undertaken during the period. During the period, RFF entered into leases for five cattle properties and increased the JBS guarantee investment, which provides lease-like income. Two cattle properties suitable for productivity developments were also acquired. Productivity improvements have been a big part of our strategy since 2016, and RFF is now benefiting from these acquisitions through rent reviews. One such rent review for the cattle property in Natal will provide a 60% rent increase in FY 2023. Productivity developments are also occurring on cattle properties owned by the group, including a newly acquired cattle property in Central Queensland, Baamba Plains.

As investors will be aware, a significant focus over the past two years has been securing land and water to develop an eventual 5,000 hectares of macadamia orchards. RFM is advising the market today we're in lease negotiations for a portion of these developments, which is subject to an exclusivity arrangement. The next page of this section details the income, earnings, and balance sheet metrics for the group at the end of June 30th. An increase in property income of AUD 7 million or 10% has been achieved in FY 2022. The increase was driven by additional income from the J&F guarantee, acquisitions, development capital expenditure, lease indexations, and market rent reviews. Earnings, as measured by total comprehensive income, increased by AUD 86 million in FY 2022, which is a 70% increase compared to the prior period.

This is primarily a result of positive revaluations of cattle properties and, to a lesser extent, almond orchards and water entitlements. Adjusted funds from operations or AFFO, the net cash generated by the group, was up 9% on an absolute basis year-over-year. On a per unit basis, AFFO was slightly lower than the prior period because assets added to the development pipeline are yet to generate AFFO. Distributions of AUD 0.1173 per unit were paid to investors in line with forecasts. Looking at the balance sheet, the group's adjusted total assets increased to AUD 1.5 billion as a result of revaluations and acquisitions, both of which will be presented later in the presentation. On a per unit basis, net assets increased 24% to AUD 2.69 per unit.

While borrowings increased during the period as development CapEx was deployed by the group, gearing has reduced slightly to 30%, which is at the lower end of the gearing target of 30%-35%, providing balance sheet capacity to fund further developments. Page seven details the main components of growth in assets during FY 2022. The graph on the left-hand side of this page shows these movements grouped by agricultural sector. The largest contributors to the AUD 338 million increase in property assets being from the cattle, macadamia, and cropping sectors. As described on the right-hand side of this page, during the year, RFF acquired AUD 179 million of properties, including mature macadamia orchards, cropping properties, and cattle properties. Existing properties have increased in value by AUD 134 million, primarily within the cattle sector.

AUD 46 million of development CapEx was recognized relating primarily to the macadamia developments, but also improved productivity from cattle and cropping properties. The next section will consider the funding sources of these activities. At the start of the previous financial year, AUD 100 million of new units were issued at a price of AUD 2.47 per unit via an entitlement offer. As outlined previously, this equity was used to support the group's ongoing acquisitions and development strategies. During the year, RFF's debt facility was increased from AUD 380 million- AUD 520 million.

A third lender has also been brought into the syndicate and a number of RFF's debt covenants have been revised, including the reduction in the ICR covenant from three times to two times . We've also continued to acquire additional interest rate hedges with AUD 210 million of forward-dated hedges entered into during the year. The chart on the bottom of this page details RFF's interest rate hedges over the next 10 years, with hedges increasing materially over the next three years. Additional details of RFF's debt facilities are presented on this page. The current headroom of AUD 65 million is sufficient for the near-term development CapEx requirements, noting the gearing capacity is approximately 110 percent—110 million, apologies, assuming a 35% gearing. While the average cost of debt decreased year-on-year, interest rates are, of course, rising in FY 2023.

Before handing over to David to provide a strategy and portfolio update, I'll conclude on this section of financial performance with details of the performance of RFF compared to the A-REIT Index, as well as the trading price compared to the net asset value. Additional information on the financial results are contained on pages 25-31 of this presentation. I'll now hand over to David.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is David Bryant speaking. Before I continue the presentation, I'll pause on this slide. It has a picture of one of the macadamia properties under development near Rockhampton. In the background is the Fitzroy River and the construction site for the Rookwood Weir. This will supply water to our Rockhampton orchards once complete. As you can see, it's well underway. RFM has been identifying and acquiring assets that can benefit from two strategies designed to increase their capital growth and income generation. The strategies are, firstly, creating productivity improvements, and secondly, conversion to higher and better use. Over the past two years, RFM has been positioning the RFF portfolio to take advantage of these two strategies through the acquisition of properties suitable for development.

The orange properties on the map indicate acquisitions in the last financial year located in Central Queensland. RFF entered into or extended leases on six properties in FY 2022. This includes the 20-year lease of two properties to lot feeder Mort & Co, as well as the 25-year lease for a portion of a cattle property to Clarke Creek Wind Farm to install wind turbines for renewable energy production. Four cattle and cropping properties continue to have their productivity improvements under development, three of which RFF will operate prior to seeking lessees. Similarly, two mature macadamia orchards acquired during the year will be operated by the fund until a lessee is arranged. These activities are expected to provide additional value and income generation for the group in future years. South of the Central Queensland properties are 24 sugarcane farms which RFF acquired in 2020.

The map on the right-hand side of this page shows the locations of these farms, which will form approximately half of the 5,000 hectares of macadamia orchards that are proposed to be developed by the group. RFM expects the first 1,000 hectares of this program to be planted by November this year. This slide considers Lynora Downs, a cropping property whose development has been recently completed. Since its acquisition in 2016, RFM has increased water storage capacity by 4,000 megaliters. This is used to support additional irrigated area, which at RFM has doubled to 1,500 hectares. The combination of these two improvements has increased the amount of cotton and other crops that can be produced on the property and improved the consistency of production and the quality of those crops.

This provides higher and more reliable cash flows for the lessee and higher rents over the lease term for RFF. As a consequence of these advances, RFF and the lessee have renewed the lease for an additional five years. Similar productivity developments are underway on two other cropping properties that RFM owns downstream on the Comet River in Central Queensland, namely Mayneland and Baamba Plains. The next section of the presentation will look at the portfolio impacts of acquisition and development activities. The RFF portfolio consists of 68 properties diversified in multiple rainfall zones, as denoted by the different colors in the map. Agricultural sections in which RFF is invested are also shown. The next page shows the FY 2023 forecasts from each of these sectors. The second chart on this page at center presents a breakdown of our lease indexation mechanisms.

The bulk of RFF leases have CPI-linked or fixed indexation. In addition, approximately a third of the leases also have a market rent review mechanism, which seeks to monetize the impact of changing asset values as RFM improves assets through productivity development. The benefits of owning agricultural assets during periods of inflation are well known, and we believe this diverse portfolio of assets with their indexation mechanisms will provide unit holders with the right mechanisms for generating income growth. Looking specifically at the lease revenue generated by RFF, you can see weighted average lease expiry is 9.1 years. Throughout the year, RFF has continued to progress sustainability initiatives and is reviewing the applicability of reporting frameworks, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

The table on the right shows RFF's largest lessees by asset value and their commitments with respect to the environment. The table notes several lessees are planning to align future disclosures with the Task Force frameworks and have net zero greenhouse gas emission targets in place which would incorporate RFF assets. Before concluding, I'll now cover the FY 2023 forecast. The FY 2023 forecast adjusted funds from operations is AUD 0.101 per unit. This is less than AFFO generated by the group in FY 2022, due primarily to higher forecast interest rates, but also interest expenses on developments. Specifically, our forecast assumes interest rates rising to 3.5% by 31 December this year, then holding at that level for the balance of the period. Over the past several years, RFF has acquired development assets which are generating relatively low levels of income.

The total value of these assets, including improvements to date, is AUD 261 million. The purpose of acquiring and developing these assets is so that we can lease them out and generate higher reliable returns. As detailed at the half-year results, cash distributions for FY 23 will not increase, although franking credits will be distributed with a value equal to 4%. Forecast distributions have been maintained at AUD 0.1173 based on a reasonable expectation our macadamia developments will be leased in the near term. This would cause a material increase in FFO and therefore a reduction in the high payout ratio presented here. In conclusion, the Rural Funds Group experienced a very prosperous financial year to 30 June 2022.

Profits and asset values increased considerably, while productivity improvements and property developments have created a pool of assets that have been prepared for new leases. The Rural Funds Group has entered this new year facing the challenge of rising interest rates at a time when our larger hedges do not start until FY 2024. Added to this, at the present time, we have some valuable assets that are not leased. We are confident that FY 2023 will be a successful year for the group because we anticipate leasing macadamia assets that will provide an uplift in funds from operations for the current year and many years beyond. Beyond 2023, RFF will generate higher rents if inflation remains high because our interest expenses are well hedged. Our asset values will most likely remain stable as inflation is reined in.

Finally, we have more assets to develop and rent. Thanks for attending today. I'll now hand over to James to conclude the presentation.

James Powell
General Manager of Investor Relations, Corporate Affairs, and Sustainability, Rural Funds Group

Thank you, David. We will shortly take questions from participants. By way of reminder, for those that have dialed in via the teleconference, you can select star one now if you would like your line to be unmuted and we will be able to hear your question verbally. For those that are using the webinar details, there will be a questions box on your screen and if you type your question in, we will receive it, and answer those after we have heard the verbal questions. I'll now hand back to our operator to unmute the necessary lines.

Operator

Thank you. Just a reminder there, star one on your telephone keypad to queue for a question, but our first question comes through from James Druce from CLSA. Please go ahead, James.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Yeah. Good morning, David and team. My first question is around FY 2023 guidance. Can you confirm the capital, do you capitalize any interest on the macadamia developments that you've done so far and the policy for this year? Is that to continue that, or is that to expense that as well?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Thanks, James. I'll hand this one to Daniel Yap.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Thanks, James. We do have a policy of capitalizing interest expenses on development assets. There is some capitalization of interest being included as part of the macadamia developments.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Okay. Is that on the whole, all of the spend or a portion of it? Can you provide any color on that front?

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yep, sure. We are able to capitalize interest expenses up to the value of our target gearing, which is approximately 35%. Approximately 35% of the development costs and the interest costs on those are able to be capitalized.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Okay. Interest rates in line with your cost of debt?

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yes, that's correct. Yeah.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Okay. Then you talked about being in exclusive due diligence with a partner for the macadamia orchard. It sounds like it's for part of it. Can you provide any color as to where that's at, and any sort of feel for the nature of the lease that you guys are thinking about?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. It's David Bryant speaking, James. The color's pretty gray because we're subject to confidentiality clauses. It is for a material portion of our proposed development. The bulk of that is underway, and that's the expenses that are being incurred and subject to the previous discussion. So there was a second part to your question, which is, was there a second part to your question, James?

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

It was just more about what color you can provide, and if there's anything about how you're thinking about the nature of the lease that will be entered into that you can talk about.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Look, it's, they're horticultural assets. If you think about that spectrum of assets that in that diagram that we've had running for many years, while there's certainly been yield compression in that data diagram, it still holds. These horticultural assets fit halfway in that spectrum between natural resource and infrastructure assets. The rental yields will reflect that and the capital growth and indexation and so forth that you can expect from an asset like that, pretty much aligned with what's expressed in that document, so in that diagram. Basically, at rates similar to horticultural assets is the answer.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Okay. That makes sense. One more if I may. Just thinking about the FY 2023 guidance, are there any other big rent reviews coming up in 2023? Also, what are you assuming for just general like-for-like growth from your rental portfolio for 2023?

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

There are a few rent reviews, but there's certainly no material ones like the Natal aggregation which was reviewed this year. The growth that we will have in FY 2023 there, as David pointed out, about half of our leases are linked to CPI or fixed indexation. Some of those, we're assuming sort of inflation numbers in line with the market on those. Keep in mind that leases like the Olam lease, they don't reset until halfway through the year. The growth we get out of those that are linked to, say, CPI, we only get half a year's growth for the year with the higher inflation. Yeah, no material rent reviews this year.

Obviously the high inflation will continue the growth in rent.

James Druce
Head of Australian Real Estate Research, CLSA

Okay. That's it from me. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, James. Our next question comes through from James Ferrier from Wilsons.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Good morning, gents. Thanks for your time today. Can I first of all ask you about the Baamba Plains and Mayneland properties and what your current thinking is or expectations around, you know, where a likely tenant's going to come from and timing there?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. Thanks, James. Look, I think it'll take 1-2 years to get those properties into shape, so that we can rent them out. It takes time to do developments. It takes time to get development approvals. So 1-2 years. I would not expect leases on those properties during FY 2023.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Okay. Thanks, David. Second question is around guidance. Can I just confirm there that the guidance excludes, this is FY 2023 earnings guidance, excludes any potential income that may come through from any new macadamia leases signed? Did I hear that correctly?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Yes, you did.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Terrific. The second part of the question around guidance is, there's obviously some net income flowing through the P&L at the moment from these directly operated assets. Can you give us some color, please, on what sort of assumptions you've made around that, contribution to income from the directly operated assets in FY 2023 guidance?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Because there's a number of moving parts to that, it's probably best to summarize it with a single number, and it'd be roughly 7%, I think.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Like 10% of the total. Yeah.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

10% of the total revenue generated.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

by the group.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Just a little bit more color on that there. In the case of the macadamias, the ones that we're operating, they're forecast to generate about 5% on the asset values. Along with the cropping properties, around 5% on the asset values.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Okay.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

That's through operating income.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Yep. Thanks.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Um-

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

It's just worth emphasizing to the audience that the intention is not to maintain those as operational assets. It's basically to prepare them for leases.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Thank you, David. That's helpful. Last question is on the exclusive discussions you're having around a lease on the macadamia development. Does that exclusive discussion include the Beerwah and Bauple orchards as well?

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. Sorry. It's subject to exclusivity.

James Ferrier
Head of Equity Research, Wilsons

Yep. Understood. Thanks for your time.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Thanks, James.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Thanks, James.

Operator

Thank you, James. Our next question comes through from Jonathan Snape from Bell Potter. Please go ahead, Jonathan.

Jonathan Snape
Research Analyst, Bell Potter

Yeah, thanks. Just a couple. If I could first just ask about the actual tax that RFM pays. I think in the first half you included it in the AFFO calculation, and it doesn't look like it's been included in the calculation for the full year. When you're doing the 2023, is it in or out of that calculation?

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

The tax that gets included in AFFO is the cash tax that we are paying out of the group. There has been a change from the half year in that there was no cash tax that had to be paid in the second half of the year, and that's largely due to the timing of the harvest and the tax recognition on some of the operating, the farming operations that we've been conducting during the year. Going forward, what we have included in AFFO is the cash tax that we are paying as part of the group.

Jonathan Snape
Research Analyst, Bell Potter

Given it's zero for the full year, does that mean it was unwound from the first half? Because I think it was like 1.2 or something like that in the first half number, if I'm remembering right.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yes, that's correct.

Jonathan Snape
Research Analyst, Bell Potter

If I'm looking at the numbers this year, there was quite a big contribution from SGARA on the properties that you're operating. I'm assuming it's coming through there in just the agricultural produce change. Is the assumption in there that, I mean, I really don't want to build a macadamia orchard model for a year or two, that I should look at what you've got this year, farm income plus all the SGARA adjustments against the farm operating costs and kinda carry that forward into 2023. Would that be roughly ballpark? I know you kinda gave that 5% number before.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah.

Jonathan Snape
Research Analyst, Bell Potter

You know, I'm trying to figure out how much of it's, you know, where the moving parts are.

Daniel Yap
CFO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. I haven't done that calculation, but the 5% number is a good number to work on because you need to keep in mind, for some of these farming operations, income from last year may have fallen yet, may be falling into this year. There's a few movements. I think it does increase this financial year, but honestly the best way to do it is to work on that 5% number.

Jonathan Snape
Research Analyst, Bell Potter

All right, great. Okay, thank you.

Operator

There are no further questions at this stage. I'll hand back over to James.

James Powell
General Manager of Investor Relations, Corporate Affairs, and Sustainability, Rural Funds Group

Thank you, operator. We've got two questions that have come in from other attendees. The first one just pertains to tax statements. They will start to be prepared shortly and distributed to investors now that the audited financial accounts process has been complete. There is another question from an investor in regards to the rental income vis-a-vis the almond orchards and the current Varroa mite situation. I'll just hand over to our Chief Operating Officer to answer that.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

Thanks, James. Yeah, I can confirm that there is no rental impact from the Varroa mite. I mean, we've been in discussion with our lessees and, the leases don't provide for any force majeure events in relation to it, but there is also no impact in FY 2023 revenue from that event. The same applies with other agricultural disease risks we have out there. Obviously, foot-and-mouth disease is one that's talked about a lot in the media. Again, we don't have any rent tied to, or any rent reduction that would occur in relation to that. You know, obviously those types of diseases can have an impact on asset values as a whole. You know, it could have minor flow on effect, but it won't impact FY 2023 earnings.

James Powell
General Manager of Investor Relations, Corporate Affairs, and Sustainability, Rural Funds Group

Thank you, Tim. I'll just remind investors that they may submit a question via the dialogue box that they will be able to see on their screen. Just while we're waiting for any final questions, I will just point out that the pages in the presentation or the section pages in the presentation have QR codes, and you can scan those codes to go to a video which is relevant to the image that's on that particular page. We don't have any further questions from our investors this morning. Apologies, one has just come through, and it's in respect to any potential income. My apologies. It's in respect to any potential impact of a third La Niña on RFF, and I'll hand that over to David.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

There's two questions there from Larry Schlesinger from the Fin Review. Good morning, Larry. So what impact will a third La Niña have on RFF this financial year? There's more money in mud than there is in dust. It's very good for the farming industry in Australia, generally speaking. We think there will be no direct impact on our earnings, but we think it'll be very favorable for our lessees, generally speaking. It doesn't mean that that doesn't present challenges at harvest time and things like that, but that's the job of good management to get things to happen and manage through those. It's another very interesting question from Larry, which is. Is it your view that rural property values have peaked, given the statement earlier about values stabilizing?

I think that's an interesting question. Historically, agricultural land values do peak or plateau during the period of readjustment, where central banks are raising interest rates to slow down economies. That's as you know, a statistical fact. During these periods, it's likely that agricultural land values will not increase. Historically, there have been periods where they have decreased. You know, the Great Depression is the most extreme example of that. Our view on our portfolio of SGARA assets is that we think that we will just see asset values plateau during this period of readjustment.

Once we get through that period, we would most likely see asset values start to move ahead again and maintain that average historical rate of capital growth of 4.5%-5%, which is what we've seen over the past 100 or so years. That's the answer there. We've got another question here. Can you talk about macadamia prices outlook and implications for lessee discussions or lease discussions, I should say. That's a question from Grant McCasker at UBS. Thank you, Grant. That's a very good question. Macadamia prices have dropped, and we think this is very good news for the macadamia industry because it confirms that macadamias are neither tulip bulbs nor cryptocurrency.

They're in fact just a boring old agricultural commodity that where prices go down when there's an oversupply and prices go up when there's an undersupply. Supply and demand in a commodity that is unsubsidized globally means that we will see typical price movements in response to supply and demand, and that's what we're seeing now. Macadamias got oversupplied during the COVID period for a range of reasons, and it was most acute in the portion of the nut that is produced that goes into ingredients, and this is smaller nuts and chips and fractions of nuts that do not present well for being sold as whole nuts or as a snack on its own.

The in-shell portion of production, the price on those declined probably 55%. Talking to marketers of nuts, they're thinking that we're probably approaching the bottom of that price decline, and then one would see prices just stabilize and then start to recover. Whole nuts for larger sizes, the price decline has probably been of the order of 10%, so much less so. A period of pain like this for macadamia producers generally lasts for a few years because you have a time lag between the crop being harvested, inventory that's being marked down, and so on and so forth. We'll see this trend of low prices now for a few years.

That's negative for the two mature orchards that we produce, so negative for leasing discussions for those. We still expect them to be profitable this year. It's largely irrelevant or somewhat positive for the development component, which is by far the biggest portion of the capital investment we're making in macadamias, because those trees will start to come into production at a time when prices are back on the rise again as supply and demand exerts its inevitable forces. We've got another question here. There's a question here from an investor saying, asking if it's getting any more difficult to find qualified lessees or good lessees. No, I don't think so.

Certainly, the macadamia leasing has taken longer than we would have liked, but we think we've got that well managed. We think the period of yield compression that we've been experiencing may wane now as investors are going to require higher rates of return on their capital, as we move back into a more realistic interest rate environment. I think talking about the industry in Australia specifically, more generally, what we've seen just, you know, I can give you a perspective over 25 years or over three years, but I think it's the same, is that we've seen the emergence of more institutional and corporate lessees, businesses that have become well-capitalized and well-organized and well-managed.

Those continue to mature, and they're an excellent source or pool of potential lessees for us to talk to. We're also seeing the continued reduction in the number of farm businesses in Australia as farms are aggregated. That aggregation or purchasing of small farms to be added to make one farm bigger is occurring with institutional investors like ourselves, but also large family farming businesses. It's becoming quite common to see AUD 100 million+ farming businesses, and I'm talking about AUD 100 million equity. That's a trend we've seen over the past couple of decades. The number of businesses in Australia, I think, has declined from 120,000- 70,000. The quality of lessees is probably actually improving.

Okay, I've got a question, specific question about macadamia prices. Tim's going to give us some answers to that.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah, okay. I think the current price of macadamias is sitting around about AUD 3.80 per kilo. That's off from about. I think it was AUD 5.75 last year. As David mentioned, our that's still. Like, even at those prices, our mature macadamia orchards remain profitable at those levels. Keep in mind our mature macadamia orchards are dry land farms, so they generally yield less than the developments that we're developing. You know, they're our mature macadamia orchards that we acquired this year. We probably budget on a yield per hectare of about 3.5 tons, and at these prices, they remain profitable.

The developments we're rolling out, we hope to achieve yields in excess of 5.5 tons, so they would be still very profitable at these prices.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. I'll just add to that, the price that Tim's quoting, AUD 3.08, is the price announced by a company that we will market those nuts through, Marquis, which is a cooperative. They've stated at their annual general meeting that that price could come in at the low threes by the year end. There's probably some still, you know, some downside, and that's, you know, that's typical of these sort of readjustments. That price is the price per kilo, nut-in-shell at 32% moisture, I think it is. And then if you know, there's other ways of expressing it.

You can have a kernel price, and kernel prices for large kernels probably dropped, and this is now in US dollars, whereas before I was quoting you an AUD price, so it can get a bit complicated. Kernel prices, as I said, for the large kernels dropped 10%, for the ingredients dropped 55%. That's probably, that gives you an idea on prices. It's just worth emphasizing, though, that the mature nut-producing orchards, the two that we acquired, Beerwah and Bauple, that we are operating and taking the operating risk on, they constitute about 3.5% of our total assets. You've got to get this into perspective. You know, the purpose of those acquisitions was to assist us with leasing orchards. That's going well.

The main game is that the medium to long term, which is maintaining income growth across a portfolio of assets, so that we can continue to increase distributions. There's a bit more of another question here that I think.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

I think we've largely, Pete, answered your question, hopefully. I referred to the yield where we're hoping to achieve a yield in excess of 5.5 tons per hectare for the new developments. The capital costs for the developments, they're included in the presentation pack. I'm happy if I haven't answered anything correctly, Peter, or sufficiently to drop me a line, mate.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Pete, you've added a question there about the Californian drought implications, and the outlook for almonds. I'm sorry, I can't answer that.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. There's no doubt that the drought in California is really starting to bite, I think, from, you know, the reading that I've had. At the moment, it hasn't, it isn't putting pressure on the almond price because we've had the COVID constraints for the sales. I think as we roll into another season, hopefully we'll see some upward pressure as a result of the drought in California. I mean, it's worth noting that California, which is in drought, produce about 80% of the world almond crop. No doubt if their production declines, we should see increases in prices.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

Okay. We've got another question from Larry Schlesinger about the outlook for cattle and almonds. I think Tim's probably addressed the almonds. Tim, you might some comments on the outlook for the cattle industry.

Tim Sheridan
COO, Rural Funds Group

Yeah. It remains very positive. Cattle prices continue to be very high. I think generally speaking, Australia's cattle herd is rebuilding. It has started that rebuilding phase, and once that completes, we may see prices come off slightly, but that's going to still take you know, another three or four years for that to occur, to get back to levels that we were at prior to the drought. Seasonal conditions remain very strong. Our cattle producers are still doing extremely well based on the very high cattle prices we have.

David Bryant
Managing Director, Rural Funds Group

There's been a big run up in cattle land values. I think that will plateau now, Larry, because you know, interest rates are going up and cattle prices are unlikely to go up further. I'd probably say the same for almonds. I'd say that they will plateau at the moment. The last decade has seen a reasonable increase in almond land, almond orchard values. I don't see a lot of upside in the near term there either. All right. I'm gonna hand over to James to wind things up. Thank you very much.

James Powell
General Manager of Investor Relations, Corporate Affairs, and Sustainability, Rural Funds Group

Thank you, David. Thank you, Tim, and thank you, Daniel. We will have a recording of this presentation available on our website. If there are any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact our investor services team via the details available on the RFM website. Thank you very much.

Powered by