Written by Karl Plume and Ana Mano
(Reuters) – Grains trader Archer Daniels Midland said on Monday that Chief Financial Officer Vikram Luthor will step down effective September 30.
Mr. Luther is the highest-level executive to step down from the company after revealing accounting problems within the company's nutrition division that later led to two government investigations and six years of restated financial data. I was forced to.
ADM placed Mr. Luther on administrative leave in January as it launched an internal investigation focused on accounting practices involving the smallest of its three business units.
The company announced that Mr. Luther will receive a performance award of $743,419 in cash in 2023, as well as stock grants tied to company performance in 2021. ADM said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he will remain at ADM in a non-executive capacity until his departure date and “provide interim support” as the company searches for a new CFO. Ta.
“After careful consideration of our company's future and how to best position ADM for success, we have decided to take this direction,” CEO Juan Luciano said in an internal memo seen by Reuters. The decision has been made to proceed.”
Mr. Luther joined ADM from General Motors in 2004 and was promoted to CFO of ADM's Nutrition Division in 2020 before becoming CFO of the company in 2022.
He oversaw one of ADM's most explosive periods of growth as the more than 100-year-old grain merchant transitioned from a crop trader and processor to a diversified food ingredients and nutrition company. The transition was attractive to investors and helped ADM push its earnings to record highs in 2022.
However, a series of market shocks revealed growing pains in this new sector.
In March, ADM revised six years of financial data after an internal investigation found that some sales between the company's business units were not properly recorded. ADM announced that it had overstated the annual operating profit of its nutrition business by up to 9.2%.
ADM stock closed slightly lower on Monday, remaining about 8% below its level just before news of the accounting problems surfaced in January.
A government investigation is not evidence of wrongdoing and does not necessarily result in charges.
(Reporting by Carl Plume in Chicago, Ana Mano in Sao Paulo and Tanai Dhumal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shriraj Kaluvila and Matthew Lewis)
