Chicago
ADM investigated: Shares in Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), one of the world’s largest crop traders, fell almost a quarter on Monday after it placed its chief financial officer on leave amid an investigation into accounting practices, say Gerson Freitas Jr and Simon Casey on Bloomberg. The stock’s fall wiped out $8.8bn from ADM’s market value. The US firm also cut its earnings expectations for the year and said it will postpone the release of its fourth-quarter results, which had been scheduled for this week. Ismael Roig (pictured) will become interim CFO, replacing Vikram Luthar, who had been in the role since 2022. ADM says it is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US markets regulator, following a voluntary document request. The probe centres on ADM’s nutrition business, its smallest, yet strategically important, unit as it seeks to diversify revenue streams into higher-value processed products. The nutrition business, which has struggled as demand for plant-based products has waned, made $7.6bn in revenue in 2022, 7.5% of the group’s total.
