Shareholders, under the aegis of Proactive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PROSAN), at the weekend picked holes in the 2017 full year result of Oando Plc, alleging that the report does not reflect the true position of the company’s accounts.
The shareholders also bemoaned the inability of the company to pay dividends for the fifth consecutive year.
The National Coordinator of group, Mr. Taiwo Oderinde, explained that members of the association who are shareholders of Oando Plc had suffered substantial financial losses as a result of the company’s poor performance over the years.
Oderinde lamented: “As responsible and concerned shareholders of Oando Plc, we took up the task to protect the company and draw the attention of the general public to the recent audited financial report year ended December 2017 which was released to the public and our findings are summarized below:
“Oando Nigeria Plc has for five consecutive years suffered incredible losses with the record breaking loss in the year 2014; the first ever in the history of our capital market. There is no sharp different between the 2016 and 2017 audited financials.
“The company has continued to accrue debts to the point that its liabilities still surpassed its assets just like the year ended 2016. For example, it was reported that Axxela took a N1.5 billion loan/facility to finance the Central Horizon Expansion pipeline’s term loans among others. In addition to that loan, Oando Trading Ltd accessed over N217.2 billion ($700 million) foreign denominated loan as a short line trade finance facilities in 2017 alone.
“Sale of assets in some of the subsidiaries are one of the strategies used to boost the company earnings. Assets were sold both locally and internationally. Since the company has many unnamed subsidiaries, which is likely to be over an hundred in number structured under a very complex shareholding structure.
“For instance, the sale of interests in OMLS 125 and 134 to the operations for cash proceeds of N1.7 billion ($5.5 million) and the assumptions of N26.2 billion ($84.5 million) in cash call liabilities due to the joint ventures”, the PROTAN leader added
The PROSAN Coordinator also appealed to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Uduk, to facilitate the immediate publication of the forensic audit conducted on the company’s books.
Oderinde, who expressed doubt about the likely integrity of the audit report, accused the minister and the SEC boss of compromise for their failure to suspend the management of the company while the forensic audit lasted.
He also alleged that the group believed that the present management of the company was just playing hide and seek game by using all resources at its disposal to entrench themselves in the company as against the interest of the majority shareholders who have been denied dividends in the last five years.
