Shareholders fault Oando result, demand forensic audit

Shareholders under the aegis of Proactive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PROSAN), at the weekend, faulted the 2017 full year result of Oando Plc, describing it as dismal and well below expectations. 

The group also decried the inability of the company to pay dividend to its shareholders for the fifth consecutive year. 

The National Coordinator, PROSAN, Taiwo Oderinde, said in a statement in Lagos, on Friday that members of his association who are also shareholders of Oando Plc have suffered substantial financial losses as a result of the company’s poor performance. 

Oderinde said: “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 N1.5billion loan/facility to finance the Central Horizon Expansion pipeline’s term loans among others.

In addition to that loan, Oando Trading Ltd. accessed over N217.2billion ($700million) foreign denominated loan as short line trade finance facilities in 2017 alone.

“Assets disposal is one of the major areas the management of our company led by Mr. Jubril Adewale Tinubu, fully exploited in the year under review. Sale of assets in some of the subsidiaries is 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 N1.7billion ($5.5million) and the assumptions of N26.2billion ($84.5million) in cash call liabilities due to the joint ventures.” 

The PROSAN Coordinator also accused the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Uduk, of unduly delaying the release of the Oando forensic audit report, and called for its immediate release.

“Finally, our group solidly believe that the present management of the company are just playing hide and seek game by using all resources at their disposal to entrench themselves in the company, against the interest of the majority shareholders, who have been denied of dividends in the last five years due to their financial recklessness,” Oderinde concluded.