New Britain Palm Oil revealed the resignation of its long-serving finance director as the ethical palm oil group revealed the cost to its plantations of one-year's worth of rain falling in four months.

The company said that David Dann had, for a second time, quit the company - this time after an 18-year stint, including nine years as finance director during which time it listed and undertook the acquisitions of CTP, Guadalcanal Plans Palm Oil and Ramu Agri-Industries.

He first worked for New Britain between 1987 and 1990 as an accountant.

Mr Dann, an Australian national, is leaving "to pursue other interests", and will be replaced by Amir Mohareb, chief financial officer.

Rain and more rain

The announcement came as New Britain revealed a decline of 15.5% to £23.3m in pre-tax profits for the first three months of the year, thanks to weather which has been "wetter than normal and at time very wet".

A spokesman for the group, which operates in the main in Papua New Guinea, said: "They had 2.5m-3m of rain in the first four month or so - what they normally receive in a year."

The comments echo those from Sipef, the plantations group which also operates in Papua New Guinea, and warned last month of "outright disastrous" storms.

New Britain said that, besides causing logistical problems, such as washing away roads, the inundations lowered palm oil extraction rates, which fell to by one percentage point to 22.9%.

Foreign exchange losses also contributed to the decline in profit, despite an 11.2% rise $82.1m in revenues

Green theme 

New Britain said that it continued to "trade in line" with boardroom forecasts, and that it was "confident" of further growth.

In the City, Liberum analysts kept their forecasts that New Britain would report full-year revenues of $458.6m, and earnings of $81.1m, and key a buy rating on the plantation group's shares with a price target of 600p.

Tom Plinston at Collins Stewart kept a "buy" rating and a price target of 611p, adding that the progress of the sustainable palm oil movement could represent a catalyst for share price movements.

New Britain has raised itself as a champion of plantations certified as sustainable and not, for example, hewn from rainforest, a theme which has caught the public mood, prompting companies including Cargill, Ferero Rocher and Nestle to flex their green credentials.

New Britain shares closed unchanged at 522.5p in London.