Agribusiness company, Ellah Lakes Plc, has revealed that it has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission of an investment by a core investor of the firm.
In an update filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the company disclosed that the fresh capital injection came as part of its fundraising activities.
Earlier in the year, the shareholders of Ellah Lakes approved the plan to raise about N5bn in capital either by private placement or any other equity issuance.
The firm explained, “Following the meeting of the Board of Directors of Ellah Lakes, which was held on 27 March 2024, the company has commenced the process of raising funds via private placement and has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission of an investment by a core investor. This transaction is subject to obtaining all relevant regulatory consents and is expected to be concluded by the end of April 2024.”
The company had yet to disclose the identity of the core investor.
According to its consolidated unaudited financial statements for the six months ended January 2024, the following entities held five per cent and above of the issued share capital of the company as of January 31, 2023; CBO Capital Partners Limited 548,587,328 (19.92 per cent); MBC Securities Ltd Nominee MBCA MGT 383,738,196 13.93 per cent; Enotie Ogbebor 357,537,790 (12.98 per cent); Blackman & Co. Limited 338,153,398 (12.28 per cent) and Lake-Oko Farm Limited 188,000,000 (6.83 per cent).
It also suffered a N618.18m loss in the first half of 2023/2024, worse than N519.8m loss recorded in the corresponding period of the prior year.
Ellah Lakes, which has its operational base in Benin City, Edo State, revealed that it recently acquired 80 per cent of the value of ELP Sunshine Limited with the remaining 20 per cent held by the Ondo State Government.
The shares of the company closed trading at N3.61 per unit on Monday.
