Bright future for Asian Citrus

I have written before about Asian Citrus Holdings Limited (ACHL) - the AIM listed China - based orange producer.

Why invest in a Chinese agriculture company?

For the diversity, dividends and solid growth prospects I guess.

ACHL currently has 1.2 million trees producing oranges. It is about to start commercial production from another plantation with 1.6 million trees. And for the slightly more distant future it has just leased land for a new plantation where it will plant 2.4 million trees.

EPS for the year ending 30 June 2007 was 32p or 20p if the gains in value of its orange plantations are excluded. The dividend is 4.4p giving it a useful 1.5% yield. EPS grew at a rate of almost 20%.

The trailing PE based on operational profit is about 14.
Tony Tong, Chairman, said ''We are very confident that Asian Citrus is progressing on the right track and we will continue to deliver good value to our shareholders"

ACHL is nice but will I ever get around to buying it?

Being an AIM stock it does not belong in my mortgage portfolio so that leaves the growth portfolio. If any of my holdings ever reach a sell point then there may be room for a small position in a solid Chinese orange company that should show little correlation to European and American stock movements and therefore offer useful diversity.

Don't expect too much excitement from ACHL but when the market is as volatile as it is at the moment it is nice to have a bit of solidity.