AWB Limited - 2003 Annual Report

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS TO THE AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGE
2002
4 October 2002
AWB announces the AWB National Pool has
paid a third distribution payment from the
2001/02 season, with more than $715
million paid to wheat growers across Australia.
15 October 2002
AWB revises down its crop forecast for
2002/03 to between 11–13 million tonnes.
20 November 2002
AWB announces a record profit of $107.2
million after tax for the 12 months to 30th
September 2002. The result represents a
28% increase on the 2001 reported after
tax profit of $83.7 million.
19 December 2002
AWB discloses a substantial shareholding in
Futuris Corporation Limited (Futuris) of 5%.
2003
6 January 2003
AWB announces the AWB National Pool
has paid its fourth distribution payment
from the 2001/02 season with more than
$766 million paid to wheat growers across
Australia.
13 January 2003
AWB revises down its crop forecast for
2001/02 to between 9.5–10.5 million
tonnes.
14 February 2003
AWB announces it has acquired a further
60.2 million Futuris ordinary shares bringing
its interest in Futuris to 14.9%.
13 March 2003
Brenda Shanahan resigns as a B class
director of AWB Limited, and Peter Polson
is appointed as a B class director, effective
from 31 March 2003.
20 March 2003
AWB suspends a discharge of wheat in Iraq
following the United Nations Oil-for-Food
program being temporarily suspended.
7 April 2003
AWB National Pool made its first
distribution payment from AWB’s 2002/03
National Pool of more than $127 million to
Australian wheat growers.
AWB National Pool announced its fifth
distribution payment from the 2001/02
harvest with more than $1.2 billion paid to
wheat growers across Australia
7 May 2003
AWB introduces its New Grower Incentive
Program for new A class shareholders who
have never owned B class shares to obtain
shares at a discount.
21 May 2003
AWB announces an after tax profit of
$29.9 million for the half year ended 31
March 2003, and declares an interim
dividend of 14 cents per share.
19 June 2003
AWB was successful in defending an appeal
by NEAT Domestic Trading Pty Ltd to the
High Court of Australia, in relation to the
refusal by AWB (International) Limited to
approve a number of bulk permit
applications to export durum.
1 July 2003
AWB revises down its crop forecast for
2003/04 to between 20–22 million tonnes.
7 July 2003
AWB announces its second distribution
from the No. 1 2002/03 AWB National
Pool, distributing more than $185 million to
Australian wheat growers.
31 July 2003
AWB finalises its highest returning AWB
National Pool with $511 million distributed
bringing the total Pool value for 2001/02
to more than $5.3 billion.
29 August 2003
AWB announces its acquisition of
Landmark from Wesfarmers for a net
purchase consideration of $718 million. A
capital raising will be undertaken including
an Institutional Placement, Share Purchase
Plan and Dividend Reinvestment Plan.
3 September 2003
AWB announces that the Institutional
Placement component of its capital raising
has closed with the offer successful, having
been heavily oversubscribed at a final price
of $3.70 per share.
7 September 2003
AWB announces the outstanding 800,000
tonne contracts to Iraq have been honoured
for immediate shipment, completing the 1.2
million tonne contracts with AWB struck
with Iraq prior to hostilities.
GLOSSARY
AWB Basis Pool is a multi-varietal pool
contract. It takes advantage of the
professionally managed “basis” premium
achieved in the AWB National Pool and
provides growers with an opportunity to
establish specific international wheat prices
using the Chicago Board of Trade wheat
futures contracts and prevailing foreign
exchange rates.
AWB Golden Rewards is a
comprehensive payment and binning
system for wheat marketed through the
AWB National Pool and selected cash
options. Golden Rewards is designed to
provide pricing accuracy and market signals
for Australia’s grain growers, ensuring that
growers are rewarded for delivering the
types of wheat demanded by AWB’s
international customers. Growers have
better defined financial targets to aim for in
terms of higher protein content and lower
screenings levels, and are no longer
severely penalised if their wheat narrowly
misses a minimum binning standard for one
of these quality attributes.
AWB Group AWB Limited and its
controlled entities.
AWB Multi V cash contracts incorporate
AWB Golden Rewards. It is based on multi
varietal classification, with continuous
quality payment scales for protein and
screenings to improve pricing accuracy and
better reflect the market value consistent
with wheat quality.
AWB RiskAssist is a specialised risk
management business service designed to
help growers manage commodity futures
and foreign exchange hedging with an
AWB Basis Pool contract.
Cost and Freight (CFR) is a freight
option whereby the seller delivers when the
goods pass the ship’s rail in the port of
shipment. The seller must pay the costs and
freight necessary to bring the goods to port,
but the risk of loss or damage to the goods
is transferred from the seller to the buyer.
Forward Freight Agreement (FFA) is a
principal to principal contract where one
counterparty takes the view that the prices
of an agreed freight route, at an agreed
time, will be higher than the agreed level.
The other party contracts to differ.
Free On Board (FOB) means that the
seller delivers when the goods pass the
ship’s rail at the named port of shipment.
The buyer has to bear all costs and risk of
loss or damage to the goods from that point.
Gross Pool Value (GPV) is the sum of all
export revenue and other value added by
AWB. It represents the gross return to
growers, and equates to the sum of pool
returns prior to storage, handling, rail and
fobbing deductions.
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