Beijing, China
October 21, 2014
Agria Corporation (NYSE: GRO) (the "Company" or "Agria"), a global agricultural company, today announced that its New Zealand-listed subsidiary, PGG Wrightson Limited (NZSE: PGW) ("PGW"), has confirmed that it believes it can increase Operating EBITDA* for the current year and improve on the NZ$58.7 million Operating EBITDA achieved in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014.
Mr. Alan Lai, Executive Chairman of Agria and presiding Chairman of the PGW Board, announced that a clear and aspirational business strategy was articulated and approved by the PGW Board. "We look forward to seeing the implementation of this plan in the current financial year and beyond. The Board is confident that the strategy has the business focused on the right areas and believes that it will achieve the right balance between operational execution, continuous improvement and growth."
Speaking to shareholders at the PGW Annual Shareholders Meeting in Napier today, PGW CEO Mark Dewdney commented, "While the reduction in the forecast dairy pay-out for the current season creates a significant degree of uncertainty the outlook for our core sheep, beef, arable, horticulture and viticulture markets is positive. Confidence in these sectors remain highly supported by solid prices, a lower NZ dollar, and, so far at least, generally good weather."
Mr. Dewdney continued, "Growth within these sectors, including in Australia and South America, will continue to be a major focus for the company and should offset some of the weakness expected in the dairy sector from falling milk prices."
"Spring and autumn are the two key periods for this business. So, while it remains too early to have high levels of certainty around how the year will play out, and noting the impact in dairy, I'm pleased to advise that based on a strong first quarter, current conditions and performance, we still believe we can increase our Operating EBITDA for the current year and better the NZ$58.7 million Operating EBITDA achieved in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014," said Mr. Dewdney.
Mr. Dewdney elaborated, "As we worked through our strategic planning, three key themes emerged: Improving our business, growing our business and looking for game-changers that will allow us to meet our changing customer needs and stay ahead of our competitors."
Mr. Dewdney concluded, "Our core strengths in sheep, beef, arable, horticulture, viticulture, livestock and wool trading and agronomy will remain at the heart of our strategy. On top of these we see several areas where we have the ability to grow our business further."
* PGW's definition of Operating EBITDA: Earnings before net finance costs, income tax, depreciation, amortization, the results of discontinued operations, fair value adjustments, non-operating items and equity accounted earnings of associates.
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