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Cadbury Nigeria plc is currently awaiting regulatory approval to raise fresh funds through a rights issue. The rights issue is seen by analysts as a way of gauging shareholders’ confidence in the company after some former directors were sanctioned over their roles in the mis-statement of the company’s accounts.
“They are trying to test the shareholders’ loyalty after the unfortunate incident and that explains why they did not go for a public offer. The success of the rights issue will definitely reveal investors’ perception about the company”, a market operator volunteered  
Already, the Nigerian Stock Exhange (NSE) has placed a technical suspension on trading of the company’s shares currently at N13.54 per unit in accordance with the rules.
An official of the company however said “the draft rights issue circular and other relevant documentation have been lodged with the regulatory authorities for approval”. 
It was gathered that approval for the capital raising was achieved at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) held recently.
Reacting to the company’s result for the year ended December 31, 2007 shareholders noted that it portends a sign of recovery within the next two years.
The result of the company for the period under review showed a ‘Loss After Taxation’ of N727 million, as against a loss after tax and exceptional item of N4.7 billion in 2006 which indicates a 12.62 percent cut in losses and as such seems to be on a recovery path. 
The company also reported a turnover of N19.94 billion as against N19.215 billion during the corresponding period of 2006.
While reacting to the result, Sunny Nwosu, a shareholder and national coordinator of Independent Shareholders Association (ISAN) noted that the result was an indication that the management of the company is working hard to return to profitability.
“What that means is that we should be expecting dividend from the company within the next two years. The result is encouraging given the fact that they had to come down from N5 billion loss in the past year and knowing that they actually had N15 billion to clean out from their books,” he said.
Timothy Adesiyan, president of the Nigerian Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA) shared Nwosu’ view noting that shareholders would be looking forward to receiving dividends by 2011.1 Cadbury had in 2007 announced a misstatement in its 2005 accounts and the directors had been prompted to make provision for the overstatements in the account. Shares in the company dropped N0.48 on Tuesday from N19.48 to close at N19.00 even as supply of the stocks outstripped demand from investors.