The board of FTN Cocoa Processors Plc, on Wednesday wrote through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to appreciate stakeholders’ concerns over its peculiar condition and to explain reasons for its failure to convene an annual general meeting for two consecutive years now.
The statement by Alpha Genasec Limited, its company secretary, lamented the unfavourable condition the company found itself, following which it could not also declare dividends.
Specifically, FTN Cocoa noted the “non-availability of the required working capital to procure cocoa beans,” its major raw materials for production.
Various efforts being made to secure working capital both locally and international are yet to yield the desired result, the statement noted, adding in fact that “one of the company’s foreign partners (Transmar Commodity USA) unfortunately had financial problems and went into liquidation.”
This, it continued, was the major reason why FTN Cocoa virtually ceased operation for over two year.
As if this was not bad enough, the company said it has piles of staff salaries, statutory payments, secretary and auditors’ fees with other financial obligations including listing fee that are now outstanding.
This situation was further worsened by the recent takeover of the company’s head office by its creditor bank for failure to meet its obligation, forcing FTN Cocoa to relocate to a rented operational office.
The statement assured that all hope is not lost as management “has been scouting for funds to save the company from total collapse.”
It assured stakeholders that there is a ray of hope, with some level progress “being recorded in respect of the expected funding and there is hope that the company will soon come out of the financial problem,” promising to provide regular updates on developments as they occur.
To further assure that the waiting would not last for too long from now, FTN Cocoa expressed hope “of holding its outstanding annual general meeting during the current financial year.”
FTN Cocoa processors was incorporated as Fantastic Traders Nigeria Limited in 1991 and commenced cocoa processing business with third party arrangement (Toll Processing) with Stanmark cocoa processing company limited in 1995 for conversion of cocoa beans into cocoa butter and cocoa cake/powder.
The company later extended its third party processing activities to Ile-Oluji, Cocoa Cooperative, Cocoa Akure and Cocoa products, Ede Osun State. In 13 years it established strong relations with overseas cocoa product buyers all over the world.
The company’s present challenges now also means that many local clients, including Nestle Nigeria Plc and Promasidor Nigeria Limited, makers of Cowbell Milk and Cocoa products, have had to find alternative sources of raw materials.