Thank you for offering us the opportunity to comment. We can only comment on the company while we were investors.

Our investment: We are no longer an investor in PHC, having exited two years ago. Prior to our investment, the business was nearly extinct. The purpose of our investment was to secure the future of PHC by rebuilding the business and resuming production. In doing so we were securing thousands of jobs in an area with few job opportunities. We also focussed on rehabilitating the social infrastructure provided by the company such as schools, hospitals, roads and water.

Land use and titles: During our investment period, the company’s activity was focussed on restoring the palm oil plantations on land where they already held land titles, rather than expansion. During that period all land titles could be viewed in Feronia’s offices in Kinshasa or London – and some NGOs took the opportunity to do so.

Independent complaints mechanism: We are supportive of the Independent Complaints Mechanism (ICM), and deliberately chose to continue supporting the ICM’s mediation process after we exited as the best means of independently resolving the community concerns raised during the time we were invested. We understand the process is ongoing, although the mediation is well-advanced.