Elders Ltd still enjoys the support of its banking partners and the company's long-term outlook is very much encouraging, that according to chief executive Malcolm Jackman as Elders came out as one of the worst performing stocks on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in the 2009/10 financial year.

The decline has been attributed to the company's numerous downgrades of its financial projections with its most recent downgrade coming two weeks ago when Elders announced a full-year loss of up to $14 million as against its original prospective target profit of $55.7 million.

Over the weekend, Mr Jackman assured Elders' investors that the company's banks have reconfirmed their commitment on the business as he stressed that "we have a very good working relationship with the banks, they're supportive of the company and likewise we have the support of our largest shareholder as well."

Speaking on ABC TV, he said that Elders would be confronting a balancing act within the next two years when the need to raise more cash for debt repayments becomes more eminent though he added that the company's plan to spin off its automotive interiors operations is still viable.

Mr Jackman expressed confidence that by the latter part of 2011, Elders' automotive business would be out of its company portfolio, which "should pay down a significant amount of debt as we go forward and that will help with the covenants along with improving profitability as we get the turn around working properly."

He said that despite the company's current state of financial difficulties, the Elders' board is not considering the sale of the company as he gave assurance that "we don't have a liquidity problem, we have a short-term profitability problem which we're addressing with some gusto and we will return to a strong position I believe in a very short period of time."