I missed watching Rachel Reeves giving her Spring Statement live because it clashed with a presentation from M.P.Evans Group (MPE) I wished to watch – see below. But there were numerous reports I could read later. There were no great surprises. The Chancellor is aiming to save £3.4 billions on welfare payments and £3.6 billions on “other departmental” costs. But there is increased expenditure on the Justice Department to offset that.
A discussion on tv channels afterwards suggested that some benefit recipients, presumably those receiving Universal Credit payments, will lose over £4,000 per year. There is going to be some squealing as a result no doubt. But when you have to cut your budgets to stay solvent, then there is little option.
M.P. Evans Webinar
M.P. Evans Group is a producer of palm oil and associated products in Indonesia (mainly Sumatra). I recently purchased a few shares and the presentation of their final results was most informative – and kept me awake that is more than I can say for some webinars.
There was a useful slide showing the breakdown of the vegetable oil market. That includes rapeseed oil which I recently commented upon and am now avoiding. Palm Oil is now taking up a larger share of a growing market which now includes usage in biodiesel. Production by MP Evans was much the same as in the previous year despite challenges from dry weather but prices of palm oil increased so revenues and profits increased last year. They could therefore afford a17% increase in the dividend.
On a prospective p/e of 8.8 and a dividend yield of 4.8 according to Stockopedia the shares do not look expensive but there may be substantial risks from investing in a country with its main operations in Indonesia even if the company is registered in the UK and has a long track record. It will clearly be sensitive to commodity prices.
It was interesting to note that the war in Ukraine had an impact on the company as their costs are affected by the price of fertilizer.
I will do some more research on the company and track it for the moment.
The MP Evans webinar was on the Investor Meet Company platform and will no doubt soon be available as a recording there.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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