AACo Announces $8.4m Loss

Australia's largest cattle producer, Australian Agricultural Company (ASX:AAC), AACo, has announced a $8.4 million loss for its financial year ending on December 31, 2012.

• Australian Agricultural Company: 2012: $8.4 million loss from a profit of $10.5 million in 2011.
• $41 million write down for its properties in northern Australia which contributed to the loss. The write-down was linked to the Australian federal government’s decision to suspend live exports to Indonesia in 2011 and then the halving of cattle imports by Indonesia after the incident.
• Cattle prices in August 2012 was at $3.90 a kilo and in December they were just slightly above $3.20 per kilogram.
• "It has worked out pretty well because we have had that stock over the Christmas period and there have been good rains, so that stock has been fattening up and that should be a good result for us", said AAco Managing Director David Farley. " AAco held back trading cattle to add weight to and sell into a market we predict will improve following recent rains, and align with the price gains seen on the local market. This was as a result of a strategic decision in the second half to increase AAco's breeding herd to 330,000 head and maximise calf production in coming years while good grass is available. AAco has grown its herd to a record supply while global supply has shrunk, and is now in an excellent position to generate cash by selling into rising global beef prices."
• AAC stocks opened at $1.25 and dropped 2.8 percent to $1.215 at closing on the ASX.
• At the end of year, AACo had 681,700 head of cattle weighing at 94.6 million kilograms, a 17 percent increase from 2011.