It has been found to be jointly liable for 1.88 billion yuan in losses

 

[SINGAPORE] A subsidiary of   Wilmar International   : F34 -0.9% has been found guilty of contract fraud by a Chinese court and ordered to jointly bear losses amounting to 1.88 billion yuan (S$345.6 million).

 

The unit was sued by the public prosecutor in January 2024 as an &ldquo accomplice&rdquo in contract fraud related to palm oil trades between state-owned enterprise Anhui Huawen and a privately owned counterparty, Yunnan Huijia Import & Export Co. The alleged fraud led to a 5.2 billion yuan loss for Anhui Huawen.

 

The judgement was handed down on Wednesday (Nov 19) by the Intermediate People&rsquo s Court of Huaibei City against Guangzhou Yihai, a subsidiary of Wilmar&rsquo s Shenzhen-listed arm, Yihai Kerry Arawana (YKA). YKA is 89.99 per cent owned by Wilmar.

 

In a bourse filing released the same day, Wilmar stated that the unit intends to contest the court&rsquo s decision, asserting that its factual determinations, adoption of evidence and application of law were &ldquo erroneous&rdquo . 

 

The judgement

According to the first-instance criminal judgement, Guangzhou Yihai was found guilty of &ldquo contract fraud as an accessory&rdquo and fined one million yuan.

 

The court also ruled that Guangzhou Yihai must jointly bear the around 1.9 billion yuan in losses incurred by the victim, state-owned enterprise Anhui Huawen, alongside Yunnan Huijia.

 

Additionally, a former general manager of Guangzhou Yihai, Liu Degang, was sentenced to 19 years&rsquo imprisonment and fined 2.8 million yuan. He was found guilty of contract fraud and bribery by a non-state employee, and the court ordered his illicit gains confiscated. 

 

The conviction of Guangzhou Yihai is based on an allegation that it had assisted Yunnan Huijia and certain persons behind Yunnan Huijia, in committing fraud against Anhui Huawen.  

 

&ldquo Erroneous&rdquo ruling

Wilmar and YKA have rejected the judgement. YKA stated that it would &ldquo fully support&rdquo its subsidiary&rsquo s appeal.

 

The group argued that the fraud was perpetrated by Yunnan Huijia, which allegedly bribed senior executives and staff at Anhui Huawen to fabricate transactions. Wilmar&rsquo s position is that Yunnan Huijia is attempting to implicate Guangzhou Yihai to shift responsibility for the losses.

 

&ldquo Guangzhou Yihai neither participated in nor had knowledge of any fraudulent activities, nor did it engage in any acts of assistance,&rdquo a statement from YKA read. 

 

The company also noted that it previously commissioned seven criminal law experts who unanimously concluded that the subsidiary&rsquo s actions did not constitute a crime.

 

Financial uncertainty

Wilmar noted that as the case is being appealed, the judgement has not yet taken effect, and the fine is not currently payable.

 

It added that because the ultimate liability remains undetermined pending the appeal, the financial impact on the company is currently uncertain. YKA stated that its operations remain normal.

 

The 46.5 billion rupee purchase will be funded by internal sources and bank borrowings

 

[SINGAPORE] A unit of agri-specialist   Wilmar International   : F34 +1.21% will acquire 13 per cent of the shares held by India&rsquo s Adani Commodities in the two companies&rsquo joint venture (JV), for 275 rupees per share.

 

This translates to a total purchase price of 46.5 billion rupees (S$683.4 million), to be funded by internal sources and bank borrowings.

 

Wilmar previously announced that its wholly owned unit Lence would purchase a maximum of 259.9 million shares &ndash or a stake of up to 20 per cent &ndash in the Mumbai-listed JV, AWL Agri Business.

 

This came after Adani Commodities announced its exit from the JV, formerly known as Adani Wilmar, in December 2024.

 

Lence expects to complete the 13 per cent stake purchase in November, after which it will hold 56.9 per cent of AWL&rsquo s existing paid-up equity share capital. 

 

Wilmar expects to recognise a gain on deemed disposal of an associated company of US$1.2 billion, with a corresponding US$1.3 billion increase in net assets. 

 

Wilmar posts US$347.7 million Q3 loss on 11.9 trillion rupiah graft penalty core profit jumps 71%

The group will also recognise a negative net tangible assets value attributable to AWL of US$0.4 billion, based on the JV&rsquo s unaudited financial statements as at Jun 30. 

 

The Group reported a net loss of US$347.7 million in 3Q2025 (3Q2024: US$254.4 million profit) as a result of a IDR 11.88 trillion (approximately US$712.3 million) payment arising from a decision of the

Indonesia Supreme Court in relation to actions taken by the Group in FY2021 during a shortage of cooking oil in the Indonesian market.

 

For 9M2025, the Group reported core net profit of US$940.9 million (9M2024: US$814.4 million) and net profit of US$247.3 million (9M2024: US$834.0 million).

 

Nevertheless, we expect our business to remain resilient for the rest of the year, barring any adverse change in international government policies that could impact our operations. 

 

Overall, we are cautiously optimistic that performance for the rest of the year will be satisfactory.