CHICAGO — ADM on March 1 filed a Form 12b-25, Notification of Late Filing, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to its annual report for fiscal 2023. The company said it is “working diligently” to finalize its financial statements and intends to file its annual report on Form 10-K “as soon as practicable” by March 15.
“As previously disclosed, in response to the company’s receipt of a voluntary document request by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is conducting an investigation of certain accounting practices and procedures with respect to the company’s Nutrition reporting segment, including as related to certain intersegment sales,” ADM noted in the March 1 SEC filing. “Due to the investigation, the preparation of the company’s financial statements to be included in the annual report as well as finalization of the assessment of internal control over financial reporting, require additional time to complete. The company is working diligently to complete such processes.
“In connection with the investigation, at the time of this filing, the company anticipates correcting certain intersegment sales reported in the segment and geographic information footnote to the company’s consolidated financial statements that were not recorded at amounts approximating market. Because each such sale occurred between the company’s reporting segments, the company does not anticipate an impact to the company’s consolidated balance sheets, statements of earnings, comprehensive income (loss), or cash flows. In addition, the company anticipates reporting a material weakness in the company’s internal control over financial reporting related to its accounting practices and procedures for intersegment sales.
“The company is developing a plan to remediate this anticipated material weakness, to be described further in the annual report.”
In late January, ADM placed Vikram Luthar, its chief financial officer,under administrative leavein connection with the investigation. The announcement of the accounting probe sent thecompany’s share price on a historic decline, plummeting 24% on Jan. 22, its largest one-day percentage decline since 1929. The stock closed Jan. 22 at $51.69 per share, its lowest since February 2021. The company’s share price has rebounded a bit since the announcement, closing at $53.11 on Feb. 29.