By Gbenga Akinfenwa
27 June 2021 | 2:58 am
• Holds First AGM In 12 Years
The Okitipupa Oil Palm (OOP) Plc has commenced the turnaround maintenance of its 4.5 tonnes per hour oil milling facility at Ipoke, targeted at producing crude palm oil and other by-products for the benefits of Nigerians.
Chairman, Board of Directors of the company, Chief Mobolaji Osomo, who disclosed this at the 31st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company in Lagos — the first in 12 years, added that the closure of the country’s borders has significantly addressed the challenge of illegal importation of vegetable in the local market, thereby impacting the price of the company’s products.
Osomo who disclosed that the company has resolved to pay its shareholders 25k dividends for the year ended December 31, 2020, 27 years after it last paid one, said the company had returned to significant profitability and had wiped out consistent losses of past years, hence the dividend payout for every 50 kobo shares held.
The chairman also said that the company recorded a significant 94.97 per cent revenue growth for the year ended, December 31, 2020, compared to the same period of 2019.
“Your company emerging from a period of recurring crises for over a decade returned to a major turnaround with an unprecedented turnover of N548.2m in 2020 compared to N281. 1m in 2019, a significant 94.97 per cent increase in revenue. In the same period, your company made a commendable profit after tax and dividend payment in the sum of N229.8m in 2020 against a profit of N3.6m in 2019.
She attributed the improvement to a change in the company’s business strategy driven by a new agricultural operations model undertaken to re-position the company, which is being consolidated in 2021, assuring that they will produce even far significant results.
“In order to sustain these encouraging trends, strategies have been developed to completely rescue the company’s plantations from the claws of unauthorised persons, who have been exploiting them without let or hindrance for over two decades,” she said.
Osomo also said that the company intends to increase its share capital from N50m to N1b shares of 50k each after approval at the meeting.
She explained that after the share capital increase; the capital obtained would be injected into projects, which include complete rehabilitation of existing 9,000 hectares of brownfield; development of over 5,800 hectares of greenfield and developing refining capacities, among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Taiwo Adewole, said though some government policies supported the company’s growth trajectory, the board and management took strategic steps to reposition the company.
Adewole said Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu led administration provided adequate security support that helped the company repossess its plantations.
He explained that the management also put in place an innovative operational model, which was to license out the plantations, which reduced the company’s expenditure.
The National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sunny Nwosu, who expressed the shareholders happiness with the current profit turnaround of the company, said the shareholders had high hope for the company.
