Emmanuel Okorley
Lexington, KY (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal
Agro Products Company
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Startup
Location:
Lexington
Industry:
Manufacturing
Year Founded:
2008
Number Employees:
100-250 people
Description:
Agro Products Company (APC) has an opportunity to acquire a license from the Ghana Cocoa Board to construct a plant for processing 64,000 metric tons of cocoa beans supplied annually by the Ghana Cocoa Board into cocoa liquor, butter, cake, and powder. This is a turnkey project with guaranteed plant rate of output. There is also an immediate market to sell all products.
Ghana is the world’s second largest cocoa beans producer with 720,000 metric tons of beans a year, but with an actual domestic processing capacity of about 240,000 metric tons. The Ghana Government is actively seeking to process up to 360,000 metric tons of cocoa beans locally. It provides investors a fast track investment process with generous incentives including a 10-year tax exemption.
APC has identified a site near Ghana's industrial city of Tema, and assembled a highly experienced management team for this project. A full design and build specification for the construction of the plant covering the entire process flow has been obtained from the world leading plant specialist Buhler Barth based in Germany.
APC is seeking $72,660,637 to fund startup costs, which include acquisition of land, plant and machinery, buildings, and other initial expenses. We seek to raise this fund through a combination of equity financing and debt financing; with $19 million in equity financing and a little under $54 million in loans. It is proposed that cash equity investors will hold the majority of the voting rights, with 12% interest bearing preference shares.
While the proposed plant has a recommended processing capacity of 64,000 metric tons a year, the conservative assumption in this plan is for processing 45,000 metric tons of cocoa beans in year one and 55,000 annually from year two onwards.
The management team will be led by APC's three highly qualified and experienced founders; viz., (1) a former Managing Director of Ghana’s Cocoa Processing Company, (2) an industrial engineer and former faculty member of the University of Kentucky, and (3) an experienced Accountant and former Financial Controller & General Manager of Versata Inc. in the United Kingdom.
We have a business plan ready to be disseminated.
NB; The location of the business is Ghana, but one of the principal owners, Dr. Emmanuel Okorley is American living in Lexington, KY. Ghana does not appear in the list of countries provided.