Elpitiya Plantations successfully conducts first virtual AGM

Thursday, 8 October 2020 01:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Elpitiya Plantations PLC, an associate company of Aitken Spence PLC, recently held its 28th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on a virtual platform. The session was hosted live for the shareholders via Zoom video-telephony program, from Aitken Spence Towers on Vauxhall Street, conforming to health and safety regulations issued by the Government of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was yet another milestone in the history of Elpitiya Plantations PLC.

Whilst the Board of Directors of Elpitiya Plantations PLC assembled in the corporate board room, maintaining social distancing protocols, the shareholders joined the meeting remotely from various locations.

All shareholders were encouraged to participate actively at the meeting and were able to view the entire proceedings of the meeting live. Furthermore, the shareholders were enabled to vote online on the resolutions on a single platform which facilitated a seamless engagement. This was another unique feature of the virtual meeting.

Moreover, the online platform also facilitated an interactive Q&A session with the Board of Directors.

The coordination of the event was entirely handled in-house by the Company Secretarial Division and the Group’s Information Technology Division, with assistance from AV Productions of Calcutta, who facilitated the audio/visual aspects.

Key highlights for the financial year 2019/2020:

Elpitiya Plantations PLC recorded a profit-after-tax of Rs. 380 million and ranked amongst the top three Regional Plantation Companies. This was despite the significant drop in crop intake following the extreme dry weather conditions prevailed during the last quarter of the financial year and the decline in tea and rubber prices owing to poor demand.

Renewable energy generation capacity increased to 2.75 MW during the FY 2019/2020 and the Company achieved the carbon negative status by generating renewable energy matching 103% of the capacity of energy consumed.

Significant progress was made during the year with the commencement of the strawberry project on commercial basis in March 2020. Meanwhile, on-field commercial cultivation of raspberry and blackberry plants is scheduled to commence in FY 2020/21. Considerable progress was made on the ESCAPE Adventure Theme Park Project during the year, with the shareholders agreement being finalised with the overseas joint venture partner Sim Leisure Group of Singapore in April 2020. Construction work on phase 1 of the project is scheduled to commence during the latter half of 2020, depending on the re-opening of airport for passenger traffic.

Elpitiya Plantations PLC (EPP) is a leading Regional Plantation Company (RPC) with a diversified crop base including tea, rubber, oil palm, forestry, cinnamon among others. The company’s 13 estates are located in the up, mid, and low country regions of Sri Lanka and cover a land extent of 8,800 hectares. In 2017/18, as a result of their proactive efforts to achieve operational sustainability, the Company embarked on a strategy aimed at transforming itself from a commodity-based company to a more diversified operation. Accordingly, the Group has expanded its interests to a wide range of sectors including eco-tourism, renewable energy, cultivation of berries, and commissioning of a world-class adventure theme park in Sri Lanka.