Final Results

RNS Number : 1318X

Hansa Trust PLC

19 June 2008

 



HANSA TRUST PLC

Preliminary Announcement of Results

for the year ended 31 March 2008

Hansa Trust PLC announces its Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 March 2008

Financial Highlights	Year ended 31 March 2008 (unaudited)	Year ended 31 March 2007 (audited)
Net Asset Value - Total Return	(10.5%)	28.4%
Performance Benchmark	6.8%	6.7%
Capital return per equity share	(116.2p)	218.2p
Revenue return per equity share	13.8p	12.8p
Net asset value per equity share	924.5p	1,039.4p
Total dividend per equity share for the year	13.0p	12.5p
Total income (£000's)	5,541	5,215
Revenue before taxation (£000's)	3,448	3,116

A final dividend of 9.5p per share (amounting to £2,280,000) is to be proposed on 31 July 2008 at the Annual General Meeting.

Ex-dividend date: 25 June 2008

Record date: 27 June 2008

Payment date: 11 August 2008

The following are attached:

• Chairman's Statement

• Group Income Statement

• Statement of Changes in Equity-Group and Company

• Balance Sheet for the Group and Company

• Cash Flow Statement

• Notes

For further information please contact:

Peter Gardner        Hansa Capital Partners LLP        020 7647 5750

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

THE YEAR'S RESULTS:

NAV: -11.1% to 924.5p per share

The year ended 31 March 2008 proved to be a rather frustrating year. It was of course dominated by the news of events in the banking industry as the credit crisis unfolded, starting with the debacle in America's sub-prime mortgage market. However sub prime mortgages are really only the beginning and the credit crisis is now spreading to many other corners of the banking business. It was a year to avoid investing in the shares of banks - which we by and large did; as measured by the FTSE Bank Index, banks lost their shareholders circa 22% of their investment. It was, however, a year to be invested in the shares of mining companies, which returned c.38% and in oil & gas shares which returned c.9%. We largely missed out on the mining sector but we did have exposure to the oil & gas sector. The rest of the market, weighed down by evermore depressing news, lost c.12.5%. John Alexander provides his usual comprehensive Investment Manager's Report, which goes into the activity within and returns from the portfolio during the year.

Our own net asset value declined 11.1%, falling from 1,039.4p to 924.5 per share. That compares with a return from our fixed interest benchmark of 6.8% and a loss from the FTSE All-Share Index of 10.8%. Shareholders will remember we use a fixed interest benchmark rather than a relative performance one, because our primary goal is to make money - after all that is why shareholders invest in Hansa Trust's shares. Of course we also aim to do better than the market - we were a little behind it last year - and than those investment trusts in our peer group - we were about in line with its average. It was not a great year but, given the circumstances, not a disaster either.

The one area we did not do too well in was that of our investment in smaller companies. It was not that the underlying companies traded poorly but rather that the shares of smaller companies tend to perform rather poorly in the circumstances of a credit crisis and the threat of a domestic recession. 

The top five contributors to our performance came from our holdings in Resolution PLC, BG Group, Christian Salvesen, Foseco and DV 3 returning c.£9.0m but their contribution was more than offset by our holdings in certain smaller companies, including our top five detractors: Ark Therapeutics, Wolseley, Acertec, Galliford Try and Engel East Europe, losing us c. £12.4m. As William Salomon has remarked, 'smallcap stocks become private equity in a bear market'. But providing they are well managed and financially sound there is no reason to suppose the holdings won't ultimately prove profitable.

DIVIDEND

+4.0% to 13.0p per share

Shareholders are aware that the Company is run to earn capital gains over the long-term. The income generated by the portfolio in any one year will depend on its make up in that year. We aim to pay out most of what is earned but the payout will of course be higher or lower depending on the results. This year the net income amounted to 13.8p per share (v 12.8p in 2006/7) and as a consequence the Board is recommending a final dividend of 9.5p per share to be paid on 11 August 2008, making a total of 13.0p in respect of the year as a whole (v 12.5p in 2006/7) being £3.12m.

SHARE PRICE PERFORMANCE

Ordinary shares:	-27.0% to 820p per share		Discount to NAV: 11.3%
'A' Ordinary shares	-20.3% to 815p per 'A' share		Discount to NAV: 11.8%

The performance of our shares was decidedly disappointing with the decline in the net asset value being accompanied by a return to a discount for the ordinary shares and a higher discount for the 'A' Ordinary shares. When the Plan Manager terminated arrangements and most of the holdings were switched to Alliance Trust, a number of share sales were precipitated. The discounts widened to levels of just under 20% at one stage but I am pleased to say they have reverted to the industry average of around 10% at present. Over the longer term, given good shareholder returns, I would expect the discount to narrow from these levels.

The table below provides a breakdown of shareholders' total return over the course of the year:

Attribution of Shareholders' Total Return

	Ordinary shares	'A' Ordinary shares
Change in the NAV	-114.9p	-114.9p
Change in the premium/discount	-188.1p	-92.6p
Dividends	+13.0p	+13.0p
Shareholders' Total Return	-290p (-25.8%)	-194.5p (-19.0%)

LONG-TERM TOTAL RETURNS:

5 Years: NAV: +259.6%;   Benchmark: +33.7%;   FTSE A-S Index +102.4%

We state - ad nauseam I am afraid - that the goal of the Company is to earn above average returns over the long-term. Put another way that means making money for shareholders. It is why we have a fixed interest benchmark, being one that compares the amount of money we make with a reasonably safe alternative and therefore being relevant to our goal. We do not 'play portfolio betting games' against stock markets indices.

Your Board has determined that five years is the time span over which it judges the long-term results and I am pleased to be able to report that they remain excellent. It is a testament to William, John and their colleagues' investing skills generally and to their ability to take long-term views when investing - so key to outstanding long-term returns.

Shareholders will not be surprised to learn the independent directors have concluded it is very much in your interests that Hansa Capital remains engaged as the Company's Manager. It isn't just the excellent long-term returns - important though they undoubtedly are - it is also the excellent management and administration of the Company's affairs generally that persuades us we are in good hands.

OCEAN WILSONS HOLDINGS LTD:

An important year of change

Shareholders will be well aware of the enormous success stemming from our holding of 26.4% of the share capital of Ocean Wilsons, a Bermuda based company with two basic interests:

•    Its holding in Wilson Sons Ltd, a company that is one of the largest operators of port, towage and maritime logistics  in Brazil; and

•    Through Ocean Wilson Investments, a portfolio of investments in quoted and unquoted shares of companies and funds spread throughout the world.

In last year's report we highlighted the history of the holding which has been held without change since it was first acquired in 1959 at a cost of circa £2.5m. It was, I reported, a classic example of the huge rewards that accrue to patient investors in sound, well managed companies (the much admired but little followed Warren Buffett approach). The value of our holding at the end of our year was £73.0m - down 2.5% from a year ago but up massively over the last five years. The table below illustrates the history of the holding over the five year period.

	OWHL	Valuation of	Per Cent	Valuation per	Year on
Year	Share	holding of	Shareholders	Ord & 'A'	Year
Ending	Price	OWHL shares	Funds	Ord Share	Change
		9,352,770		24,000,000
31-Mar-08	780.0p	£72,951,606	32.9%	304.0p	-2.5%
31-Mar-07	800.0p	£74,822,160	30.0%	311.8p	+69.0%
31-Mar-06	473.3p	£44,261,984	22.5%	184.4p	+58.3%
31-Mar-05	299.0p	£27,964,782	20.0%	116.5p	+68.5%
31-Mar-04	177.5p	£16,601,167	16.2%	69.2p	+177.3%
31-Mar-03	64.0p	£5,985,773	9.2%	24.9p

The wonderful increase in the value of our holding stems mainly from the success of Wilson Sons and its operations in Brazil. It is a well managed company and has enjoyed the benefits of the growth of Brazil's trade (particularly with China) and the emergence of Brazil's oil and gas industry. Indeed there have been some huge offshore discoveries made recently, promising an even rosier future for it. The table below provides a record of revenues and operating profits for Wilsons Sons, demonstrating the progress made by the company during the past five years:

31 December	2007	2006	% change	2002	% change
	(US$ m)	(US$ m)		(US$ m)
Revenues	404.0	334.2	+20.9%	120.5	+235.2%
Operating Profit	85.6	72.6	17.9%	32.9	159.9%

The table below shows where those $404m of revenues earned in 2007 came from:

31 December	2007	2006	% change
	(US$ m)	(US$ m)
Port Terminals	149.0	127.4	+17.0%
Towage	146.8	118.8	+23.6%
Logistics	69.1	49.3	+40.2%
Other	39.1	38.7	+1.0%
Total Revenues	404.0	334.2	+20.9%

The financial nature of such maritime activities is that they involve lots of contracts set at different rates and different times with different currencies involved. It can make the reporting of the finances complex and the results volatile but the progress has been real. 2007 was another good year during which, importantly, it embarked on a significant expansion, increasing its capital investment in new facilities and thereby setting the platform for yet more growth; the prospects for Brazil generally, for its trade particularly and for Wilson Sons specifically remain most promising.

A single holding accounting for a third of shareholders' funds can be regarded as rather risky and indeed is so. But the Board of Directors has always viewed the holding in Ocean Wilsons as a diversification in its own right - diversifying away from the London Stock Market on which the rest of its portfolio holdings is quoted and which carries the risks of political, economic and commercial Britain. Investment in Brazil, of course, carries its own risks but they, like Brazil's opportunities, are quite different from those of Britain. Brazil's investment risks, it can be argued, are rather greater than those of Britain (certainly history would suggest so) but by the same token the opportunities are also much greater.

In any event and mindful of the opportunities that emerging economies generally offer the investor, Ocean Wilsons made a significant move to diversify its own risk base in 2007. In April 2007 it established a listing for the shares of Wilson Sons on the Brazilian and Luxembourg stock exchanges by divesting itself of 18.7 million shares in its subsidiary, raising just over US$200m in the process. Wilson Sons then issued a further 11.0 million shares in May 2007 raising circa US$120m to help finance the expansion plans referred to above. Ocean Wilsons now holds 58.25% of the share capital of Wilson Sons.

Ocean Wilsons' board of directors has subsequently determined that the proceeds of the sale should be used to bolster the investment portfolio which forms the other segment of its business, Ocean Wilson Investments Ltd.

They have decided that - and I quote: 'to increase the scale and breadth of that company's investments and expand the remit to include alternative investment classes, including illiquid securities with a particular emphasis on emerging markets'. So it is that the large holding in Ocean Wilsons has been diversified. We are often asked whether we shouldn't top slice the holding from time to time but the fact is that our interests would not necessarily be best served by doing so; I do not anticipate the Board of Directors authorising any change in the holding.

The balance sheet of Ocean Wilsons at its year end (31 December 2007) was quite different from that of a year earlier. Now the majority of the Ocean Wilsons shareholders' funds are accounted for by Ocean Wilson Investments and a minority by Wilson Sons, as the table below shows.

31 December	2007		2006
	(US$ m)		(US$ m)
Wilson Sons
Assets	575.4		326.9
Liabilities	253.8		181.9
Minority Interest	134.3		3.8
Net Interest	187.3	39.1%	141.2	63.6%
Ocean Wilson Invest
Assets	299.3		82.8
Liabilities	7.8		2.2
Net Interest	291.5	60.9%	80.6	36.4%
Total Shareholder’s Funds	478.8	100.0%	221.8	100.0%

Indeed at 31 March I have estimated that Hansa Trust's indirect interest in Wilson Sons was worth circa £62m and in Ocean Wilson Investments circa £40m, leaving our own valuation selling at a discount of circa 28.4% to the underlying value of Ocean Wilsons itself.

31 March 2008

Underlying Value of Hansa Trust's 26.4% of holding in:

	Wilson Sons	£62.0m
	Ocean Wilson Investments	£40.0m
Total Underlying Value in Ocean Wilsons Holdings		£102.0m
Valuation of Hansa Trust’s holding in Ocean Wilsons Holdings		£73.0m

I appreciate that my report on Ocean Wilsons is rather longer than usual but I thought it worthwhile given the significant changes that the company has undertaken.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

31 July 2007 at 11.30am at the Washington Hotel, Curzon Street, London

Please, please come and join us for the AGM, which will be held at the Washington Hotel, Curzon Street, London (Green Park tube station, see map on page 59) at 11.30am on Thursday 31 July 2007. Your attendance is important to us because it gives us, the Directors and Management, the chance to hear your views, concerns and suggestions. So I do urge as many shareholders as possible to join us for the occasion at which Mr John Alexander will give his presentation of the events of the past year and the prospects for the current one. Following the formal AGM shareholders will have the chance to meet the Directors and the Management should you wish to do so.

The Annual Report which you will be asked to adopt as the first of the AGM's resolutions, contains three matters which I would like to draw to your attention. First of all, following the successful case brought by the Association of Investment Companies and JPMorgan Claverhouse against Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs ('HMRC') in the European Court of Justice, investment trusts no longer have to pay VAT on the management fee, a saving of circa £280,000 each year; furthermore we are able to claim back VAT paid in the past which in our case will amount to at least £674,000. You will notice a credit has been made in the Group Income Statement for that amount and it is possible there will be more to come.

Secondly, the new Stock Exchange Listing Rules, under the heading of Chapter 15, have determined, amongst other things, that there should be a formal statement of Hansa Trust's investment policy. You will find this laid out on pages 18 & 19. Shareholders will be aware that material changes to the investment policy can only be made with your formal consent in general meeting.

And finally, laid out on pages 55 - 58, under note 21 to the accounts is the statement required of us in compliance with IFRS 7. It is a standard we met last year and deals with the matter of those risks that the standard requires of us, being those of market price, currency, interest rate, credit and liquidity. I mention this because these are not the main risks you face as shareholders but rather they are some of the symptoms of those risks which we lay out on page 15 of the Report of the Directors. As I emphasised earlier in this statement, the holding in the shares of Ocean Wilsons, representing about one third of shareholders' funds is a particularly big individual risk (even much mitigated as it now is).

OUTLOOK

Short-term cautious, long-term bullish

The heading above - short-term cautious, long-term bullish - is precisely the same as last year. The first part of it has proved to be perceptive even though we had little inkling of the size of problems to come. That there were excesses of dishonesty, ambition and greed at work in the banking industry, most especially the investment banking sector, was there for all to see. It should not have been difficult to realise such behaviour would come back to haunt us all and so it has proved. Billion and billions of Dollars, Pounds, Euros and Yen have been wiped out as banks - and others - have had both to write down and to write off bad loans and bad investments. A leading economic and stock market consultant makes the point that there are two types of bubbles - ones which result in excess capital expenditure on productive facilities but which provide capacity for good economic growth for years to come (the railroads in the nineteenth century, for instance) and others, which result in the destruction of capital through excess lending on overvalued, even flawed, assets - often property (Japan in the 1980s, for instance). There is no doubt that this time around it is the latter kind of bubble that has just burst. Managing the consequences is going to be very difficult, for central banks are torn between the threats of deflation from contracting banking capacity on the one hand and inflation on the other.

But the picture is actually both more complicated and less pessimistic than that. It seems highly likely that we are in the midst of a generational change in the world order; much as the baton of world economic and political leadership passed from Great Britain to the United States of America 100 years ago, so it is now in all probability being passed on to China. The national cornerstones that helped the USA - and to a greater or lesser extent Europe and Japan - to the prosperity it now enjoys are not working properly: democracy is failing to produce sound and effective leadership, free speech in the hands of the media is delivering negativism and pessimism, the law favours compensation for mishaps and vengeance rather than justice and finally religious discipline has given way to anything-goes atheism, provoking crime and social disorder. It is the sort of decline that has been repeated throughout history.

In investment terms it amounts to a huge transfer of earning power and to a redistribution of wealth. The era of cheap commodities combining with cheap labour to produce cheap goods and services for the economically emerged world (the USA etc, accounting for one sixth of the world's population) is on its way out. Many of those former third world countries, which include China, India, Brazil and Russia with their emerging economies, now want the living standards the emerged economies enjoy. They (with their populations accounting for over half of that of the world) are prepared to work hard to achieve prosperity for today and to save enough to invest in prosperity for tomorrow. But there are not enough resources to go around - for the moment at least - to satisfy those ambitions so the emerged economies are going to have to make do with less if the emerging economies are to have more. Understanding how that process will unfold will be the key to investment success over the next several years.

It will happen - is happening - through rising global inflation and major realignments of exchange rates. With their high rates of savings and strong work ethic, the emerging economies will be able to acquire commodities and other goods and services that the emerged economies will find increasingly difficult to afford. It will not, however, happen overnight nor will it be a smooth transition. The emerged economies will seek to protect their life styles, provoking the risks of protectionism and even war. China for its part is almost certainly growing too fast at the moment and will have to cut back the rate of its development or the problems of water shortages, pollution, congestion and inflation will cause the very social unrest that the economic development is supposed to allay. So the process and the progress will be uneven.

The changing world order is a challenge for investors for although its outcome is certain, its course is uncertain. It is - in part at least - why the board of directors of Ocean Wilsons decided to keep investing in the emerging world. It offers enormous opportunities for investment but not without risk. With good foresight and sound portfolio management, both of which Hansa Trust has, there is the real prospect of earning excellent returns in the future by reading the tea leaves right and by playing them long. It is the second half of the heading above: long-term bullish.

Signature

Alex Hammond-Chambers

Chairman

GROUP INCOME STATEMENT

For the year ended 31 March 2008

		Revenue	Capital	Total	Revenue	Capital	Total
		2008	2008	2008	2007	2007	2007
		£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
(Losses)/gains on investments		-	(28,112)	(28,112)	-	52,403	52,403
Gain/(loss) on derivative		-	221	221	-	(20)	(20)
Exchange losses on currency balances		-	(1)	(1)	-	(10)	(10)
Investment income		5,541	-	5,541	5,215	-	5,215
		5,541	(27,892)	(22,351)	5,215	52,373	57,588
Investment management fee		(1,838)	-	(1,838)	(1,312)	-	(1,312)
Write back of prior years' VAT		674	-	674	-	-	-
Other expenses		(729)	-	(729)	(561)	-	(561)
		(1,893)	-	(1,893)	(1,873)	-	(1,873)
Profit/(loss) before finance costs and taxation		3,648	(27,892)	(24,244)	3,342	52,373	55,715
Finance costs		(200)	-	(200)	(226)	-	(226)
Profit/(loss) before taxation		3,448	(27,892)	(24,444)	3,116	52,373	55,489
Taxation		(144)	-	(144)	(58)	-	(58)
Profit /(loss) for the year		3,304	(27,892)	(24,588)	3,058	52,373	55,431
Return per Ordinary and 'A' non-voting Ordinary share		13.8p	(116.2p)	(102.4p)	12.8p	218.2p	231.0p

The total column of this statement represents the Group's Income Statement, prepared in accordance with IFRS. The supplementary revenue and capital return columns are both prepared under guidance published by the Association of Investment Companies.

All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing operations.

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY - GROUP

For the year ended 31 March 2008

		Share	Capital	Retained	Total	Share	Capital	Retained	Total
		Capital	redemption	earnings		Capital	redemption	earnings
			reserve				reserve
		2008	2008	2008	2008	2007	2007	2007	2007
		£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Net assets at 1 April		1,200	300	247,966	249,466	1,200	300	194,875	196,375
(Loss)/profit for the year		-	-	(24,588)	(24,588)	-	-	55,431	55,431
Dividends paid		-	-	(3,000)	(3,000)	-	-	(2,340)	(2,340)
Net assets at 31 March		1,200	300	220,378	221,878	1,200	300	247,966	249,466

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY - COMPANY

For the year ended 31 March 2008

		Share	Capital	Retained	Total	Share	Capital	Retained	Total
		Capital	redemption	earnings		Capital	redemption	earnings
			reserve				reserve
		2008	2008	2008	2008	2007	2007	2007	2007
		£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Net assets at 1 April		1,200	300	247,966	249,466	1,200	300	194,875	196,375
(Loss)/profit for the year		-	-	(24,588)	(24,588)	-	-	55,431	55,431
Dividends paid		-	-	(3,000)	(3,000)	-	-	(2,340)	(2,340)
Net assets at 31 March		1,200	300	220,378	221,878	1,200	300	247,966	249,466

BALANCE SHEET OF THE GROUP AND COMPANY

as at 31 March 2008

Group			Group	Company	Company
2008			2007	2008	2007
		£000	£000	£000	£000
Non-current investments
Shares in Group undertaking		-	-	637	638
Investments held at fair value through profit and loss		235,366	243,641	235,366	243,641
		235,366	243,641	236,003	244,279
Current assets
Trade and other receivables		2,398	737	2,398	737
Cash and cash equivalents		251	6,091	251	6,091
		2,649	6,828	2,649	6,828
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables		(16,137)	(1,003)	(16,774)	(1,641)
Net current (liabilities) / assets		(13,488)	5,825	(14,125)	5,187
Net assets		221,878	249,466	221,878	249,466
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital		1,200	1,200	1,200	1,200
Capital redemption reserve		300	300	300	300
Retained earnings		220,378	247,966	220,378	247,966
Total equity shareholders' funds		221,878	249,466	221,878	249,466
Net asset value per Ordinary and 'A' non-voting Ordinary share		924.5p	1,039.4p	924.5p	1,039.4p

CASH FLOW STATEMENT

for the year ended 31 March 2008

		Group	Group	Company	Company
		2008	2007	2008	2007
		£000	£000	£000	£000
Cash flows from operating activities
(Loss)/profit before finance costs & taxation		(24,244)	55,715	(24,244)	55,715
Adjustments for:
Realised gains on investments		(6,646)	(32,063)	(6,646)	(32,063)
Unrealised losses/(gains) on investments		34,758	(20,340)	34,759	(20,335)
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes		1	10	1	10
Interest paid		-	-	-	-
Decrease in current asset investments		-	-	-	-
(Increase)/decrease in trade and other receivables		(1,661)	(391)	(1,661)	(391)
Increase in trade and other payables		42	-	41	24
Taxes paid		(144)	(58)	(144)	(58)
Purchase of non-current investments		(42,801)	(65,752)	(42,801)	(65,752)
Sale of non-current investments		22,256	77,905	22,256	77,905
Net cash (outflow)/inflow from operating activities		(18,439)	15,026	(18,439)	15,055
Cash flows from financing activities
Interest paid on bank loans		(200)	(226)	(200)	(226)
Dividends paid		(3,000)	(2,340)	(3,000)	(2,340)
(Repayment)/ drawdown of loans		15,800	(6,600)	15,800	(6,600)
Net cash inflow/(outflow) from financing activities		12,600	(9,166)	12,600	(9,166)
(Decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents		(5,839)	5,860	(5,839)	5,889
Cash and cash equivalent at 1 April		6,091	241	6,091	212
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes		(1)	(10)	(1)	(10)
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 March		251	6,091	251	6,091

INCOME
	Revenue		Revenue
	2008		2007
	£000		£000
Income from listed investments
Dividends	3,840		3,562
Overseas dividends	1,564		1,391
	5,404		4,953
Other operating income
Net dealing profit of the subsidiary	-		-
Placement and underwriting income	25		4
Interest receivable on AAA rated money market funds	108		205
Other interest receivable	4		53
	137		262
Total income	5,541		5,215

DIVIDENDS PAID

	2008		2007
	£000		£000
Amounts recognised as distributions to equity holders in the year:
Final dividend for 2007: 9.0p (2006: 6.25p)	2,160		1,500
Interim dividend for 2008: 3.5p (2007: 3.5p)	840		840
	3,000		2,340

The proposed final dividend is subject to approval by Shareholders at the Annual General Meeting and has not been included as a liability in these financial statements.

We set out below the total dividends paid and proposed in respect of the financial year, which is the basis on which the requirements of Section 842 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 are considered. The Company's revenue available for distribution by way of dividend for the year is £3,304,000 (2007: £3,063,000).

	2008		2007
	£000		£000
Interim dividend for 2008: 3.5p (2007 3.5p)	840		840
Proposed final dividend for 2008: 9.5p (2007: 9.0p)	2,280		2,160
	3,120		3,000

Notes:

 

1.        This Preliminary Announcement is not the Company’s statutory accounts. It is an abridged version of the Company’s full draft accounts for the year ended 31 March 2008, which have not yet been approved, audited or filed with the Registrar of Companies.

 

2.        The full draft accounts for the year ended 31 March 2008 have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) and using the same accounting policies as those in the last published annual accounts, being those to 31 March 2007.

 

3.        Statutory accounts for the 12 months ended 31 March 2007 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and received an audit report which was unqualified, did not include a reference to any matter to which the auditors drew attention without qualifying the report, and did not contain statements under Section 237 (2) and (3) of the Companies Act 1985.

Hansa Capital Partners LLP - Company Secretary

19 June 2008

 

END

 

 

FR GUURPQUPRGAB