Chairman's statement In the year to 31 December 2013 your Company achieved earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £3.0 million (2012: £4.7 million). As we stated in the Interim Report, the year started well for your Company with a strong performance in the first six months at Black Wattle, our South African coal mining subsidiary. However, as we reported in the Interim Management Statement, in the final quarter of 2013 our open cast mining operations at Black Wattle were severely impacted when one of our main production pits ran into unrecorded old underground workings. The prompt action taken by your management ensured that the mine recovered quickly from this incident, but the production lost from this area had to be made up by increased production from one of our higher cost pits. Inevitably, this has had an adverse impact on profitability. We expect the mine to return to acceptable levels of profitability in the second half of 2014 when we return to full production from our lower cost pits. Looking forward, we are pleased to report that Black Wattle has concluded an agreement with Blue Nightingale Trading 817 (Pty) Ltd (“Blue Nightingale”), a black owned and managed mining company, to purchase Run of Mine coal from an opencast reserve adjacent to our existing mine. This reserve consists of approximately 2.3 million tonnes of high quality coal with very low stripping ratios. This is the second mining agreement we have concluded with Blue Nightingale and we are very pleased to be involved with them in the development of another reserve. We are also pleased to report that Black Wattle continues to perform well under the Quattro Programme which allows junior black-economic empowerment coal producers direct access to the coal export market via Richards Bay Coal Terminal. During 2013 the mine railed 266,000 metric tonnes (2012: 160,000 metric tonnes) through the programme. We would like to thank Vunani Limited, our black-economic empowered shareholders at Black Wattle for managing and developing this opportunity. Despite the fact that coal markets have been affected by weak international coal prices, the physical demand for our coal continues to remain strong in both the domestic and export markets. Nevertheless we expect depressed coal prices to continue for the whole of 2014. Meanwhile, the Company’s UK retail property portfolio, which underpins the Group and which is actively managed by London & Associated Properties PLC, continues to perform well. Despite the regional location of our portfolio, voids across the portfolio were at the extraordinarily low level of 2.13%. Given all of the above but also taking into account the strength and diversification of our business, your directors have decided to hold the dividend at the 2012 level and will recommend to you, our shareholders, a final dividend of 3p (2012: 3p) payable on 1 August 2014 to shareholders registered at the close of business on 4 July 2014 making the total for the year 4p. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all of our staff for their hard work during the course of the year. Michael Heller, Chairman © 2011 Bisichi Mining PLC Privacy & Legal Site map