Dive Brief:

• Archer Daniels Midland announced it would cut about 600 to 700 roles, including about 150 unfilled positions, as part of a larger effort to realize $200 million to $300 million in cost savings this year and as much as $750 million over the next three to five years, according to its Q4 earnings report.    
• The cost-cutting comes as ADM CEO Juan Luciano said the agricultural company is facing “softer market conditions and policy uncertainty around the world going into 2025,” according to a statement included in the release. 
• ADM’s CFO Monish Patolawala also said the company is still making progress on its effort to “lift” the material weakness with regard to the company’s financial reporting related to intersegment sales which led to restatements last year. The material weakness “is one item that we are very heavily focused on,” Patolawala said during a Tuesday earnings call. 

Dive Insight:

The Chicago-based company’s accounting problems emerged more than a year ago when the company placed then-CFO Vikram Luthar, who resigned from the company later last year, on forced leave pending an internal probe into accounting practices. In March, the company confirmed it was cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice related to government investigations.

During Tuesday’s call, executives did not address the status of the investigations and the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the probes. But Patolawala, who was hired in July from industrial product maker 3M, reiterated the company’s commitment to remediating its accounting weakness and provided some fresh details on how the company was strengthening controls.

In addition to continuing to improve the design, controls and documentation around inter-segment sales, the company is training its staff on reporting and recognition of the sales and has enhanced and tested many controls. But he indicated the company has not quite completed the remediation work. 

“We need to continue to make sure that is sustained for a period of time before we can lift the material weakness. And that's what the teams are focused on,” Patolawala said. 

Morningstar strategist Seth Goldstein said last week that, while it would be helpful to get an update on the status of government investigations, he didn’t anticipate that the company would do so until there was a settlement in the case or it was closed or settled in some way. “Companies generally don’t want to comment until there’s something tangible,” he said. 

At the same time, he acknowledged that investors have likely lost some confidence, especially as a new round of accounting problems arose in the fall. In November, the company revealed more accounting errors, canceled an earnings call, and said it would amend its fiscal 2023 10-K and two 2024 10-Qs following dialogue between ADM and the SEC, CFO Dive previously reported.

The company reported that Q4 revenue fell 6% year over year to $21.5 billion, below consensus estimates of $22.7 billion, while adjusted earnings per share for the perior was in line with consensus at $1.14, according to a JPMorgan report Tuesday.