Nigeria’s leading oil palm company, Presco Plc, is set to secure a 100% equity stake in the Ghanaian Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) for $124.9 million.
The acquisition involves purchasing 70,580,000 ordinary shares of GOPDC at $1.77 per share.
According to a corporate disclosure accessed, Presco will make an initial deposit of $64.962 million, with the remaining balance to be settled in the future. This strategic acquisition is expected to bolster Presco’s currency diversification efforts, as GOPDC generates about 41% of its revenue from export sales.
GOPDC, currently a subsidiary of Societe d’Investissement pour l’Agriculture Tropicale (Siat) SA, a key shareholder in Presco, operates similarly to Presco. Both companies are involved in the cultivation of oil palm, extraction of crude palm oil and palm kernel oil, and the production of refined oil products. GOPDC operates from two oil palm estates in Ghana’s Eastern Region—the Kwae Estate and Okumaning Estate—covering about 21,000 hectares, of which 13,000 hectares are developed.
GOPDC’s processing facilities include a 60 metric tonnes per hectare fresh fruit palm oil mill, a 100 metric tonnes per day refinery, a 60 metric tonnes per day palm kernel mill, a fractionation plant, and a palm kernel cake pellet plant. The company boasts an annual production capacity of 35,000 tonnes of palm oil and palm kernel oil, with a storage capacity of 21,000 tonnes. It produces red palm oil and vegetable oil under the “King’s” brand and employs about 30,000 workers during peak harvest seasons.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, GOPDC recorded a net revenue of 456.35 million Ghana Cedis (~$30.6 million), a gross profit of 270.35 million GHc, and an operating profit of 188.18 million GHc. The company achieved an impressive operating margin of 41.2% during this period. Forecasts predict GOPDC’s revenue to reach 1.2 billion GHc ($80.95 million) by 2028, with a slightly reduced operating margin of 39.7%.