Ann: Annual Report to shareholders, page-3

A poor season and disappointing year for DBF. Investing in ag carries more risk than many other businesses but after years of waiting through drought, we now get a year where too much water sends the ops into a loss.

A couple of things stand out after a quick browse (need to read it more carefully later):

Loss was $3.167m yet fees were $3.319m. Not saying the Asset Manager will do it for free, but the performance fee is charged on NAV increase and not operating performance. This is all laid out beforehand, so we know what we are getting into, but just saying this point stands out like a sore thumb.

Revenues were lower than 2021 despite spikes in wheat, canola, beef, lamb and several other commodities. The report says this was due to crop loss etc. so understandable after the record rains in the area. But again, this was the year to expect a better profit performance.

Interest rate and borrowings - the company's own interest rate sensitivity shows an 0.05% increase will cost 174k per annum. With rates going up this is going to start affecting the bottom line. There is hedging in place but this will roll off at some point. A 1% rise will cut into profit (if we get any) by 3.5 million. A big bite out of the apple...

I still don't get the investment into Duxton Bees and there was no information provided (i.e price, analysis) in this report other than a cursory mention.

Overall, we need to see the results over a few more seasons but it'd be good to see some decent results while product prices are high.