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spk00: Greetings, and welcome to Tingo Group Full Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants are in listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin the formal presentation, I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include forecasts, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment on what the future holds, They are not guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation. Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Throughout today's discussion, we will attempt to present some important factors relating to our business that may affect our predictions. You should also review our most recent Form 10-K filed today and Form 10-Q for a more complete discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading Risk Factors. A press release detailing these results crossed the wires this morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Time and is available in the Investor Relations section of our company's website, tinggroup.com. Your hosts today, Darren Mercer, Tingo Group Chief Executive Officer, Dozie Mombosi, Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods founder and CEO, and Kevin Chen, Tingo Group Chief Financial Officer, will present the results of operations for the year ended December 31st, 2022. At this time, I will turn the call over to Tingo Group Chief Executive Officer, Darren Mercer.
spk04: Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everybody. I am pleased to welcome you to today's full year 2022 financial results conference call. I could not be more excited about the future for Tingo Group. And for those of you joining us for the first time, who I've not previously had the opportunity to meet, I would like to take a moment to introduce Tingo Group and our remarkable story thus far. Tingo Group is a diverse fintech and agri-fintech group of companies with operations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The company significantly expanded and was somewhat transformed when we acquired 100% of Tingo Mobile Limited on November the 30th of 2022, and then subsequently acquiring Tingo Foods PLC on February the 9th of 2023, and subsequently changing our name to Tingo Group Inc. Tingo Group is now comprised of the following businesses. Tingo Mobile, which is a leading fintech and agri-fintech business operating in Africa that operates through a device as a service and a smartphone platform model. Tingo Foods, which often takes crops from the wider group's large farming customer base and processes those crops into finished food and beverage products. Tingo DMCC, which operates a commodity trading platform and commodity export business from Dubai, and which in turn deals in both raw crops and finished products. TingoPay, which operates the TingoPay super app and has a Pan-Africa partnership with Visa. The full version of TingoPay, which will be rolled out later this year, provides payment services and e-wallets and a range of value-added services to customers. Tingo Pay, in partnership with Visa, also offers a range of merchant services to businesses. And finally, the company's fintech verticals, which operate platforms that offer a range of insurance and financial service products and are currently focused on the Southeast Asia market. The Tingo Group annual financial results reported in today's 10K filing and which are presented here today include the revenues and earnings of Tingo Mobile from its date of acquisition on November 30th of 2022. In other words, the income statement included within the 10K is comprised of the full year results of the company together with one month's results of Tingo Mobile. In addition, today's earnings presentation and press release also include summarise pro forma financial information for the year ended December 31st, 2022 and the year ended December 31st, 2021, which is presented as if the acquisition of Tingo Mobile had been completed on January the 1st of 2021. This is with the aim of assisting you in understanding the financial performance of the business we have acquired together with our historical business. The 10K, together with our earnings presentation and press release, also include the consolidated group balance sheet as of December 31st, 2022. At the close of the Tingo Mobile acquisition on November 30th, 2022, we immediately became highly profitable and have continued to grow strongly since, as evidenced by the recent announcements of a number of major trade deals and partnerships. which not only are expected to result in a more than tripling of current customer numbers, and which we will speak about later today, but also mark the commencement of our global expansion. The 2022 pro forma financial performance for the group as shown on this slide, and for which Tingo Group expects to file an updated 8K during April of 2023, highlights the strong financial performance that we had been messaging since our merger agreement was announced. We are now a company that on a pro forma basis generated for the year ended December 31st, 2022, nearly 1.2 billion US dollars in revenue, 675 million US dollars in gross profit, and nearly 555 million US dollars in income before tax. Furthermore, our cash balance as of December 31st of 2022, which is reflected on our balance sheet audited by Deloitte LLP, one of the preeminent audit firms in the world, stood at just over $500 million. Driving these contributions were 11.4 million NWASA AgriFinTech platform customers by December of 2022. generating more than 1 billion U.S. dollars per month of transaction value. Our overarching mission at Singo Group is to foster digital and financial inclusion through our FinTech platforms and to drive social and economic upliftment. In our agri-FinTech businesses, we also strive to make a significant difference in improving global food supply and tackling the world's food security crisis by delivering farmer empowerment, improved crop yields, reduced post-harvest spoilage, and better access to both foreign and domestic markets. At a regional level, we aim to support Africa and its farmers to achieve sustainable food self-sufficiency, bringing an end to Africa's food insecurity and poverty. 2022 has been a year of huge transformation. as we have pivoted the direction of the company in response to the changing market conditions and made a major acquisition, namely of Tingo Mobile. By way of a recap, we entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Tingo Mobile on May the 10th of 2022. Following this, we immediately appointed an elite team of world-class advisors to undertake extensive due diligence and financial analysis. The team included Big Four accountants Ernst & Young, the world's leading law firm Denton's, and the number one M&A investment bank, Houlihan Loki, and our longstanding New York legal counsel, Elanoff, Grossman & Scholl. We announced on June 15th of 2022 that the due diligence exercise had been completed and that the findings were positive with no material concerns. The original merger agreement was amended and restated in October of 2022 to facilitate the expedited acquisition of 100% to Tingo Mobile, as well as an improvement in terms for the company's shareholders. The acquisition was subsequently completed on November 30th, 2022. With the benefit of the company's and Tingo Mobile's collaboration, The fourth quarter of 2022 saw the beginning of the geographical expansion of Tingo Mobile, with the opening of new offices in Ghana, Malawi, and Dubai, which we will detail later in our presentation. The fourth quarter also saw us launch the Tingo DMCC commodities trading platform and export business, and the Tingo Pays super app in partnership with Visa. By January 2023 we had begun to pivot the company's insurance and fintech verticals to better complement the Tingo businesses, with the aim of leveraging its already established brands and large customer base. Then, on February 7th of 2023 we acquired the Tingo Foods food and beverage processing business, so as to complete the Tingo seed to sale ecosystem. Lastly, and most recently, we changed our corporate name and ticker symbol to better reflect the importance of the Tingo brand to the business and provide improved clarity to our external stakeholders, including current and prospective partners, customers, and investors. We also launched a new investor relations website at tingogroup.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Dozo Mabuzi, the Tingo Mobile, and Tingo Foods founder and CEO to further discuss Tingo's operations. Dosey.
spk02: Thank you, Darren, and to everyone joining us today. I am delighted to have this opportunity to walk you through the Tingo mobile business that I founded over 22 years ago and to present our ambitious yet carefully considered growth strategy. We begin with the Tingo mobile business as a service model and then what's our fintech platform. which we believe is the leading agri-fintech platform in Africa. Following the signing of our definitive merger agreement with MICT in October of 2022, we set about accelerating our growth strategy. In November and December, we signed trade agreements with two major partners with the aim of quickly expanding TIGO Mobile's customer base from 9.3 million to an expected 30 million by the end of 2023. We signed a trade partnership with the All Pharma Association of Nigeria, which included a commitment to enroll a minimum of 20 million new customer base to Tingo Mobile. We also launched in Ghana and signed a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Ashanti, which included a commitment to enroll a minimum of 2 million new customers to Tingo Mobile and a target to enroll more than 4 million new customers. Soon afterwards, we launched into Malawi and began to progress several trade partnerships there, with the aim of establishing a base rollout in the future across East Africa, including into Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. Looking ahead further, we plan to expand in the future into other parts of Africa, as well as into China and the wider Asia, and into other relevant markets in the world. Through our other businesses within Tingo family, namely Tingo Foods and Tingo DMCC, we aim to increase uptake and demand for produce from Tingo Mobile's farmers, thereby creating a virtuous self-reinforcing cycle. In December 2022, we launched Tingo DMCC, which is an agricultural commodity platform and export business in partnership with the Dubai Multi-Commodity Center, DMCC. The platform and export business will facilitate the global export of agricultural commodities from Tingo Mobile's farmers and finished food and beverage products from Tingo Foods. BMCC is a leading center of international trade and the world's number one free trade zone and therefore an obvious choice for us to partner with. To our access to Nigeria's 60 million farmers, including Afan's 20 million plus farmers, and the farmers in Ghana, Malawi, and other territories. We have access to several billion dollars per annum of agricultural produce for export. Not only does Tingo DMCC constitute a substantial and highly profitable business in its own right, it hugely accelerates the dollarization and globalization of the whole group. while also giving us the Tingo Mobile farmers and Tingo Foods direct access to international markets. Through Tingo DMCC, we are creating a win-win situation, improving world food supply, delivering fair prices and empowerment to farmers, and generating substantial high margin revenues to Tingo DMCC and the wider Tingo group. Tingo Foods was brought into the group on February 7, 2023. This is a business that our team and I I've been developing for some time outside of Tingo Mobile. We launched the business as a standalone company in September 2022, focusing on supplying a small product range to several supermarket groups and wholesale businesses. Within the first four months of trading, Tingo Foods generated more than $400 million of turnover at healthy margins. Having completed the sale of Tingo Mobile on November 30, 2022, we turned our attention to bringing Tingo Foods into the group, bearing in mind its strategic importance within the Tingo ecosystem. Tingo Foods creates significant demand and uptake for Tingo Mobile farmers, while at the same time creating supply for Tingo DMCC's commodity trading and export business. Tingo Foods is set to multiply capacity, to multiply capacity and revenue with a new set of at $1.6 billion food processing facility in Delta state of Nigeria. Scheduled to open early in the second half of 2024. We recently partnered with EV Tech Energy PLC to build a $150 million, 110 megawatt solar plant to power the facility. This is aimed at achieving a net zero carbon emission and reduce the energy costs for the group. We believe Africa's farmers and agricultural sector will benefit from the significant expansion of the continent's own processing capabilities, increasing crop demand, giving farmers higher prices and delivering financial upliftment. Single Foods is also expected to be a major contributor to our ESG goal. For example, through the delivery of material reduction in farmers' post-harvest losses, significant improvement in world food security, and considerable environmental benefits, reducing freight miles, improving production efficiency, reducing food wastage, powered exclusively by renewable energy, and reducing carbon footprint. Tingo Pay is a super app that offers a full range of value-added services and partnership with Visa. Such services include a digital Visa card, e-wallet, payment services, marketplace, e-commerce, insurance, and finance. As a full market B2C and B2B offering, the Tingo Pay super app and Visa partnership is helping us to diversify and expand Tingo Group into new sectors with the aim of making Tingo Pay and Tingo household names, as widely recognized as visa itself. To assist us in achieving market penetration, our Pan-Africa partnership with Visa includes their provision of marketing and customer acquisition support. SMEs in all business sectors stand to benefit from our new range of Tingo Visa merchant services and the Tingo Pay business portal. Whereas our smallholder farmers whereas our smallholder farmer customers will see significant additional advantages through the integration of TingoPay with our Nuasa Agri-Marketplace platform. The TingoPay business portal and TingoVisa merchant services enable subscribing farmers and businesses in all sectors to easily and securely accept payments and use it to make online transactions in their domestic or foreign currencies. as well as to manage their cards, set up repeat payments, and access transaction statements. Together, Tingo Mobile and Tingo Pay, in partnership with Visa, are designed to deliver financial inclusion and social upliftment throughout Africa. We also plan to expand into Asia and other emerging markets. Through Tingo Mobile, NWASA, Tingo Pay, Tingo Food, and Tingo DMCC, we have created a full agri-fintech ecosystem. We communicate with and push services to our farmers through the smartphone handsets we supply to them. The farmers can use the embedded Nuasa and Tingo Pay apps to purchase inputs for their farming business, to purchase services and make payments, and to sell their produce. Tingo Foods is a valuable customer and source of uptake for the farmers, for which it processes such crops into finished food and beverage products. Then single DMCC can sell the finished food and beverages as well as raw crops from the farmers, the wholesalers, distributors, and other customers around the world. The single group creates a reinforcing loop of financial and digital inclusion, along with an increase in food supply and a reduction in post-harvest wastage, which improves food security. And ultimately, all these factors deliver financial and social upliftment. We are highly committed to environmental, social, and governance factors. We foster digital and financial inclusion through our technology platforms, driving the social and economic upliftment of our customers. We meaningfully improve the global food supply and tackle the world's food security crisis by empowering the farmer, helping them increase crop yields, reduce post-harvest losses, improve access to markets, and deliver fairer prices. Our technology and platforms also deliver significant environmental benefits, reducing crop wastage, improving farming and food production efficiency, promoting sustainable farming techniques, and reducing freight miles. As part of our commitment towards the environment and social upliftment, We are focused on adopting a mature ESG framework underpinned and guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I will now turn the call over to TINGO Group CFO Kevin Chen to discuss our full year 2022 financial results as reported in this morning's 10-K filing.
spk01: Thank you, Josie. I am incredibly pleased to present our financial results for the year ended December 31st, 2022. together with their certain pro forma financial information for the year ended December 31st, 2022 and the year ended December 31st, 2021, which has been prepared as if the acquisition of Kindle Mobile had been completed on January 1st, 2021. This is with the aim of assisting you in understanding the financial performance of the business we have acquired together with our own performance. The full breakdown of our financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022 is available in our regulatory filing and in the press release that crossed the wire earlier this morning. The acquisition of 100 of Tingo Mobile completed on November 30, 2022, resulting in the consolidation of Tingo Mobile's financial results into Tingo Group from December 1, 2022. Net revenues of Tingle Group for 2022 were $146 million compared to $65.7 million in the prior year, an increase of 162%, which was mainly attributed to the consolidation of one month of the revenues of Tingle Mobile. The operating loss of Tingle Group for 2022 was $11.8 million versus the loss of 37.9 million for the prior year after accounting for the non-recurrent transaction expenses of 9.6 million and share-based payments of 6.6 million. The operating loss of Tingle Group for 2022 would reflect a profit of 4.4 million if the non-recurrent transaction expenses and share-based payments were added back. The performance consolidated revenue of Tingle Group for 2022 were 1.15 billion compared to 0.92 billion for the prior year, which after sweeping out non-recurring mobile handset sales in 2021 of 0.31 billion, represented an increase of 85.5%. Single mobile handset leasing revenues for 2022 were 476.3 billion, up 15.3% on prior year revenues of $316.9 million. And WhatsApp AgriSyntax platform revenues for 2022 were $532.2 million, up 168% on prior year revenues of $198.6 million. The former EBITDA for 2022 was $964.5 million and net income before tax was $555.5 million, compared to an EBITDA of $275.6 million and a net loss before tax of $47.7 million for the prior year. Single group cash balances at December 31, 2022 amounted to $500.3 billion, compared to $96.6 million at December 31, 2021. A detailed analysis of performer revenues of TIGO Group for the years ended December 2021 and 2022 is provided on page 14 of the presentation, together with details of the year-on-year growth achieved in 2022. A summary of the pro forma income statement of Tingo Group for the years ended December 2021 and 2022 is provided on page 15 of the presentation. A summary of the balance sheet highlights is provided on page 16 of the presentation. The income statement for the years ended December 2021 and 2022 is provided on page 17 of the presentation. I will now hand the call back to Darren.
spk04: Thank you, Kevin. My board and I believe Tingo Group is uniquely positioned both as a company and as an investment proposition. We are a fast growth and highly profitable NASDAQ listed company. Our 2022 pro forma EBITDA totaled 954.5 million US dollars compared to 275 point six million US dollars in the previous year. We have a strong balance sheet and our cash flow positive. Our cash balance in December 31st of 2022 amounted to five hundred point three million US dollars. Our financial statements were audited by big four accountant Deloitte LLP, one of the most reputable audit firms in the world. In addition to which, our controls and procedures were audited by Grant Thornton LLP, who are also one of the world's preeminent audit firms. We have a fast growth, high margin and sticky revenue model with low customer acquisition costs and low attrition. We have a full agri and food ecosystem from seed to sale, creating a virtuous circle for both us and our customers. We are making a difference towards addressing the global food shortage and food security crisis, and we are a benefactor of price inflation. Our Visa, Tingo partnership and Tingo Pay super app expands Tingo significantly into new B2C and B2B markets. We have proven proprietary fintech platforms which are replicable in new geographical markets and new sectors. We have a vast addressable global market. We believe we have a significant ESG impact that can grow considerably further in the future. Thank you, operator. My colleagues and I from Tingo are now ready to take questions from the participants.
spk03: For webcast participants wishing to ask a question, please click on the ask a question button on the left of your screen under the player window. Our first question is, if you read certain websites and bulletin boards, there are several naysayers who say that Africa, particularly Nigeria, is ripe with fraud. What comfort can you give shareholders that Tingo is real? I'll take that, Dozie, if I might, please.
spk04: Well, I think the short answer to that is considerable, but to give you a bit more granularity and detail around that, I think it's really firstly important for us to understand the level of due diligence that we undertook as part of the acquisition process. I've mentioned it many times in many different announcements that we have made. But just to recap and for those who haven't heard it, when we bought Tingo Mobile, we appointed a world-class team of advisors. We had Ernst & Young, a world-leading and big four accountant, doing all the financial due diligence, the tax due diligence, and the quality of earnings analysis. We had arguably the world's largest legal firm, Denson's, doing detailed legal due diligence. And we had arguably the world's number one M&A investment bank, Houlihan Loki, doing additional detailed financial analysis. As I've said on many previous occasions, there were no material adverse findings by any of these parties. And I think it's also, you know, we need to take into consideration and look about the partnerships that Tingo themselves had formed and the diligence undertaken by their various partners. To start with Visa Group, one of the world's largest payment systems, they went through a very detailed due diligence exercise before they entered into their Pan-African partnership with Tingo Mobile. And my board, ahead of the announcement we made in May the 10th, was given a presentation by a globally prestigious investment bank who themselves undertaken their own detailed due diligence over a period of a number of months before they themselves boarded Syngo Mobile as a client. This extensive due diligence that we did undertake, it cost us many, many millions of dollars as we've seen in our previous filings. But in our opinion, it was money pretty well spent. And it gave my board and myself the confidence and the comfort we needed to complete the transaction. And it also allowed us to better understand the business that we were acquiring. And I'm hoping that that level of diligence, that comprehensive level of diligence we undertook, will give other outside investors from institutions and through to retail the satisfaction um that the board themselves were very pleased with the findings and one more thing as an aside just to add to the gentleman's question um is you know as an aside to the due diligence that that i've just outlined you know today we are sat here before you announcing our year-end results with our new order to deloitte you know the number one accountancy practice in the world having undertaken the thorough audit of all of the operations and companies within the group including single mobile And to add to that, Grant Thornton, the fifth biggest accountancy practice in the world, have just completed the Sarbanes-Oxley review and audit of all the internal controls and procedures. So when you put all of that together and consider all of the steps we've taken, I'm not sure what else we could have done to provide comfort to shareholders. Dozi, anything you'd like to add to that?
spk02: Yes. Thanks, Darren. Just to add to what the gentleman asked I understand the fears, but one thing we need to really state clearly here is that look, we're a business with a soul. Between two years on, we are still there. We still cater to the needs of smallholder farmers, and there are millions. Even look at what we've done with the biggest agricultural group in Nigeria. I mean AFAN, that's the All Farmer Association of Nigeria. you know, if we do not really mean, you know, to be there for these farmers, more of them wouldn't be wanting to work with us. So we have demonstrated that, you know, we can as a business continue to thrive, at the same time make money for our shareholders and other stakeholders. So I think beyond the beyond the due diligence and the audit, people need to understand that, yes, there are challenges in Nigeria, but it doesn't mean that every business that comes out of Nigeria is fraudulent. I think at this point in this life of ours, we need to start getting that clear. There is fraud everywhere in the world, but we've built a world-class business supported by world-class investment banks, auditors, all sorts of institutions. So for us, we are excited to continue to, you know, work the way we are working and to continue to protect them, you know, put security in the world and show that farmers are self-reliant and are able to continue to, you know, live as humans, you know, the way they deserve to be treated, you know.
spk04: Yeah, thanks, Dozie. Yeah, I think, you know, I think in summary, in answer to this question, there are a lot of companies out there listed in a lot of markets, be them in the United States or elsewhere in the world, that wouldn't have undertaken the level of diligence that we have as part of this process and certainly wouldn't be represented by the quality of professional advisors that we have.
spk03: Thank you, Tim. Our next question is, When I visit the NWASAmarket.com or open the NWASA app, I see very few signs of activity. There are only a small number of products, hardly any reviews, and the app has few downloads. Please explain the position with NWASA, bearing in mind your proxy claims it is doing $1 billion U.S. per month gross transaction value.
spk02: Okay, thank you. Dozie, would you like to take that one? So yes, our Nuasa marketplace was launched in 2020 as a USSD platform. For those who do not understand what USSD stands for, it's unstructured supplementary service data, which is a global system for mobile communications protocol used for text messages to execute certain transactions. So the idea behind Nuasa is, of course, to get single customers to execute their transactions across the platform know not only in relation to sale of their produce or the purchase of farming inputs other utilities like of course paying bills purchasing mobile phone insurance and um and to arrange micro credit so um separate from the ussd platform we are in the process of developing um a transaction website and and a super app and um this is currently at the test stage. That's why you see that on the Play Store. And we are welcoming developers from across the world to test with us using that access on the Play Store. So we definitely hope to complete the new platforms, and we hope to launch sometime this year.
spk03: Thank you, team. Our next question is, You have mentioned in previous announcements that the board will put in place a plan to address the disconnect between the share price and the underlying performance of the company. What is the latest position on this? Jose, I'll take this. Thank you.
spk04: Let me start. I think it's important to highlight that on the back of the Deloitte audit that we're reporting here today, that I firmly believe the perception of our company in the world If it hasn't changed already, it will change. And with regard to the point of the question, I think on a number of occasions we have spoken about a number of strategies to enable us to address the disconnect. I can tell you here today that the board are and making plans around a number of initiatives. Now, those initiatives that are under consideration include the likes of a special one-off dividend. They include the introduction of a dividend strategy, an alternative listing, dual listing on an alternative stock exchange, and others as well are also under consideration. I think it's important to remember that as a company, that's delivered on a pro forma basis in excess of a billion dollars of revenue and $550 million of pre-tax profits, and that is delivering considerable growth on both top and bottom line, that we as a company act and respond in a way to this share price disconnect that neither undermines our brand proposition or compromises any shareholder value. And so notwithstanding any of the above, there are a number of initiatives in progress that we believe will address much of the market manipulation we've suffered. And hopefully this will be reflected in the share price in the very near term. So I think in summary in this question, the thing I'd like to leave in people's minds today is that as a company, those broad plans that I've spoken about, we do expect to start making announcements around those in the short coming weeks.
spk03: Thank you, Tim. Our next question is, there is mention in the presentation of restructuring the old MICT businesses to best complement the existing Tingo brand. Can you provide more detail?
spk04: Again, Dosey, if I may. Yes, thank you. One of the great assets that we now call the old MICT business has are the number of regulated licenses we hold across a number of verticals and supported by world-class proprietary technology. So if we think we can now combine that with a very large, significant user and customer base throughout pan-Africa, and there are a number of opportunities, all of which can add material profitability to the group. I don't really want to go into too much detail on this call as to what those plans are, but I think I ought to shed some light on a material opportunity which is at our fingertips, which is in the payment space. Just like many diaspora around the world, Africans are no different and they do repatriate money to their friends and family back home. And if we look at Nigeria, and that's the market as we announced, we have 10 plus million customers and we hope that will rise to 30 million by the end of this year. If we take Nigeria as that case in point, family and friends there send back a figure of somewhere between $2 and $8 billion each and every month, depending on whose figures we believe, of course. And this market currently is very poorly served, be it in product bring the cost of currency conversion and particularly customer satisfaction a lot of customer dissatisfaction in this case so we believe that utilizing the relationships we have with the two major global banking empires uh that we have referred to another announcements with the 10 plus million farmers on the platform that will have a very significant product and price advantage uh to our customer base and whilst i'm not permitted to give a profit forecast here I can say that I would expect the profitable contribution here to be very material to the group number.
spk03: Thank you, Tim. Our next question is, with the company having so much cash and given the forecast profitability of the group, why has a share buyback not yet been initiated? Again, Dosey, if I may.
spk04: It's a very good question. And I think, as I said in my earlier answer, that will finalize and begin to announce the company's plans in the coming weeks. But it should also, you know, as I mentioned earlier, with that level of cash, with the level of profitability the company is now experiencing and delivering, it's not just share buybacks that we can consider. A dividend plan on a regular quarterly basis is also being considered by the board at this time. But what I would like to do is reiterate that with the Deloitte audit now completed, I believe that the horizon for our shareholders has improved considerably. And as I just said a moment ago, the board are being very considered in the next steps to deal with what we think is a very pressing matter on the disconnect between the performance of the group and the share price.
spk03: Thank you, team. Our next question is, this is clearly an amazing esg story and i cannot think of any other truly genuine esg stories with such levels of growth and profitability why do you not yet have any esg funds as shareholders uh thank you yes i actually agree with you too um you should be remembered though i think that this acquisition was only completed four months ago on november the 30th from memory and that today marks the publication of the first group audited results
spk04: And so, you know, with today's filing of our 10K and the group audit being completed by, as I've said many times, one of the world's leading audit firms, I believe we are now in a position to attract a large institutional base, including, of course, the growing number of ESG funds that are looking for genuine ESG opportunities. And like you've said, I can't think of many more attractive propositions than ours. And as I mentioned earlier, just as a final point on this, this is where the quality of the due diligence we did at the time of acquisition are of paramount importance, supported by the likes of Deloitte, because this is what I believe will instill the confidence with institutional and retail perspective shareholders to invest in us.
spk03: Thank you, Tim. Our next question is, how does the election of the new Nigerian president impact Kingo Group, and its business? Dozie, I think this is best answered by you.
spk02: Yeah, of course. Thanks, Larry. As some of you are aware, I have personally congratulated the incoming president. And of course, we see government as a continuum. So it's important that as a major operator in what we, we view as Nigeria's most important sector. That's the agriculture and commodities sector. We believe that we can continue to strengthen our relationship with the government. There is no strong business that can really remain strong without the support of the government in terms of, you know, giving them ideas on where policy should be and how a business like this can be supported. So, of course, we look forward to working with the incoming administration.
spk03: Thank you, Tim. Our next question is regarding your announcement in February where you suspected Tingo Group is a victim of illegal naked short selling. Can you update us on the investigation and remedial actions that are being taken?
spk04: Dozie, let me take that, if I may, please. yeah um our specialist lawyers and their team of expert advisors have been working diligently and making considerable progress to date and whilst i'm not in a position to give more of a detailed response at this particular time i think what it is fair to say is that we we believe we do have substantive evidence that has been gained of such unlawful activity and the indications of magnitude are substantial or sizable. Let me be clear. If that is borne out and we do see there have been material breaches of the SEC rules of conduct, we will aggressively pursue the perpetrators no matter who they are, be them hedge funds, be them stakeholders, market makers, whomever. But at this time, I can't say any more than that. But rest assured, we will be keeping shareholders fully updated. as and when events happen.
spk03: Thank you, team. Our next question is, it is clear that the company is not short of expansion opportunities, both in Africa and in other parts of the world. Can you please explain how the company decides on its priorities when it is considering the array of opportunities?
spk04: Dozie, if I may? Very good question. And yes, you're right. We do have very many opportunities at our fingertips right now. whether they be in new verticals, new products, other parts of Africa, other parts of the world. We do have a wealth of opportunities at our fingertips, as I've said. And so, as you would expect, our evaluation of all the opportunities is going to have to take into account many, many different criteria and measures. You know, anything from the return on capital employed or contribution to group profitability. It may all be synergistic impacts on other parts of the group. You know, and of course, alignment with our mission and core values. Yes, we are in a very exciting position. I'm certainly not restricted at all by any lack of opportunity, which clearly not every company is graced with. So, as you would expect, the board will prioritize, you know, as it sees fit with the primary focus on shareholder value accretion as its primary focus.
spk03: Our last question asks, Can Dozie Mabuse shed any light on why he wants to buy a football club such as Sheffield United and where he stands in the approval process with the English Football League?
spk02: Dozie, I think that's yours. Yes. Well, I'm not sure if this is the right forum to discuss football matters, but needless to say that I've always had passion for football, as you may be aware from my involvement in football in my home country, Nigeria, where I support grassroots football and last year did the maiden edition of the Super Cup, which is actually the biggest tournament in Nigeria as of today. I'm fortunate to be in a position to buy a major football club here in England and for a team such as Sheffield United with all its history. I have a desire to be the first black person to own a Premier League football club. I believe, of course, Sheffield United will be promoted to the English Premier League. Well, in addition, I believe that the ownership of Sheffield United will bring significant advantages to the single group as Nigeria and the continent of Africa gain more awareness of the single brand through their love for English football. In terms of process with the EFL, I hope to be in a position to announce positive news very soon.
spk03: I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mercer for his closing remarks. Thank you, operator.
spk04: I would like to thank each of you today for joining our earnings conference call. and look forward to continuing to update you on our ongoing progress and growth. If, however, we were unable to answer any of your questions, then please do reach out to our IR firm, MZ Group, who will be more than happy to assist.
spk00: Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. We disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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