Business

Cadbury Nigeria has suggested exchanging its $7.7 million (N7.03 billion) debt owed to Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Limited for additional equity. Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Limited, a major investor controlled by Mondel–z International Inc. with a 74.97 percent stake in Cadbury Nigeria, is involved in this proposal. In a statement issued on Tuesday to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), Cadbury Nigeria clarified that it initially borrowed $23 million from Cadbury Schweppes to settle third-party loans used for financing raw material imports and other input costs. The company highlighted difficulties in servicing the foreign currency-denominated loans, attributing the challenges to the persistent scarcity of foreign currency in the country. Cadbury Nigeria provided details on the impact of the foreign exchange market liberalization in June 2023 and the subsequent currency devaluation, significantly increasing the Naira value of its foreign currency-denominated loans. This circumstance led to an unrealized exchange loss of ¦20.6 billion and an after-tax loss of ¦10.2 billion for the period ending September 30, 2023. Despite having repaid $18.6 million of the principal and accrued interest to the investor, Cadbury Nigeria still has an outstanding balance of $7.7 million as of December 31, 2023. #CadburyNigeria #DebtRestructuring #FinancialNews