Chuka Mordi is the Chief Executive Officer of Ellah Lakes Plc – an agribusiness that specializes in cultivating and processing oil palm, cassava, soya, maize, and rice. In this interview with Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi, he spoke about Ellah Lakes’ recently announced N235 billion subscription offer and its proposed expansion plans.
Ellah Lakes has launched a monumental N235 billion subscription offer. What does the scale of this equity raise enable the company to achieve in terms of growth and operational resilience?
The scale of the N235 billion raise is transformative because it gives Ellah Lakes the financial depth required to shift from a primarily land-focused agricultural business into a fully integrated agro-industrial enterprise with meaningful processing capacity and recurring revenue.
For years, the company has built a strong foundation in land acquisition, early-stage cultivation, and establishing the building blocks of its value chains. However, what this capital does is unlock the next phase (Industrialisation and scale).
It strengthens our balance sheet, funds strategic acquisitions, and accelerates investments in processing infrastructure that will dramatically increase output and margins. Importantly, it provides the resilience needed to withstand the inherent volatility in agriculture, because a company that controls the full chain from land to processing is far better equipped to manage shocks.
In simple terms, this raise enables Ellah Lakes to operationalise its vision faster, deeper, and more strategically than ever before. It positions the Company for long-term growth and puts us on the path to become one of Nigeria’s most significant integrated agro-industrial players.
The shares are priced at N12.50 each. Could you explain the key financial and strategic metrics that anchor this valuation, ensuring investors understand the tangible asset base supporting this price point?
The N12.50 pricing is anchored on three core pillars: asset value, earnings capacity, and strategic upside.
Strong Tangible Asset Backing: Ellah Lakes controls one of the largest agricultural land banks among indigenous operators with over 30,000 hectares across Edo, Ondo, Delta, and Ogun States. The land portfolio alone represents substantial intrinsic value, with significant revaluation potential as development progresses.
Long-Term Cash Flow Potential: The valuation reflects the projected earnings from expanded processing operations. Our integrated model (oil palm mills, cassava processing plants, and piggery operations) creates predictable, scalable, and margin-accretive cash flows.
Strategic Growth Optionality: The company is positioned to capture significant upside from its acquisition pipeline and ongoing transition to higher-value downstream products. Our processing plants will significantly increase capacity utilisation, driving higher yields and stronger EBITDA margins.
Overall, the N12.50 price represents a clear link between Ellah Lakes’ tangible asset base and the earnings trajectory we are building through integration and scale.
Ellah Lakes differentiates itself through vertical integration and asset diversification. How does your strategic mix combining oil palm, cassava, and piggery operations create a more resilient and attractive investment opportunity?
Our diversification is intentional and strategic. We chose value chains that complement one another both operationally and financially. Oil palm, for instance, provides one of the most resilient and consistently demanded agricultural products globally.
Cassava is central to Nigeria’s food and industrial ecosystem, with strong local demand. Livestock, especially piggery, provides recurring cash flow and a market with yearly growth.
These value chains strengthen each other. Waste from cassava processing becomes a useful input for piggery feed. Palm kernel cake also becomes a valuable ingredient in livestock nutrition. This reduces input costs, improves margins, and creates a closed-loop system with little waste.
Most importantly, the combination of these three value chains ensures that Ellah Lakes generates revenue throughout the year, across different seasons and market cycles.
Investors benefit from a diversified and stabilised revenue structure rather than being exposed to the volatility of a single crop or commodity. This integrated model reduces risk, enhances profitability, and strengthens the Company’s long-term resilience.
This capital is earmarked for strategic acquisitions and processing facility upgrades. How will the enhanced capacity from these upgrades directly translate into increased revenue and operational efficiencies for the Company in 2026?
The development efforts currently being implemented mark the point where Ellah Lakes transitions from producing raw agricultural output to generating industrial-scale processed goods.
Once the facilities are completed, every ton we harvest will move through a far more efficient system that extracts more value, reduces waste, and increases throughput.
By 2026, these upgrades will translate into meaningful revenue increases because they allow the company to process more output, sell value-added products, and improve margins through better conversion rates. At the same time, operating costs fall as automation, throughput optimisation, and modern equipment reduce energy consumption, labour intensity, and wastage.
The acquisition component is key to achieving scale. What returns do you expect from investments like the Agro-Allied Resources & Processing Nigeria Limited (ARPN) land bank?
ARPN is a strategically important acquisition because it accelerates our growth trajectory without the long delays typically associated with developing new plantations from scratch.
The land is viable, strategically located, and supports high-yield agricultural activity. This gives Ellah Lakes the ability to scale production far more quickly and at a lower incremental cost.
The returns from ARPN will be both immediate and long term. In the near term, it increases our fresh fruit bunch supply, which will feed directly into our upgraded mills, boosting volume and revenue.
In the long term, once the plantations reach peak productivity, they will become a significant contributor to cash flow and profitability for decades.
The acquisition also reduces the company’s dependence on external suppliers, allowing us to control more of our raw material inputs. This stabilises supply, strengthens margins, and improves operational reliability.
For shareholders, ARPN represents a long-term annuity that will consistently generate value as processing capacity increases.
If this offer is fully subscribed, how does it fundamentally change Ellah Lakes’ operational blueprint and accelerate your core strategic priorities over the next five years?
A fully subscribed offer gives Ellah Lakes the ability to execute without compromise. It changes the Company from one building capacity piece by piece into one that can fully realise its vision with speed and scale.
Over the next five years, it will allow us to develop a multi-state integrated agro-industrial ecosystem, where production, processing, and distribution operate seamlessly.
The company will become more profitable as processing takes centre stage and begins to account for a larger share of revenue. This reduces dependence on primary agriculture and shifts the business into a more stable and margin-rich phase.
At the same time, it provides the capital foundation to deepen our position in all three value chains (palm, cassava, and livestock) and to expand selectively into adjacent opportunities where we see strong returns.
In effect, full subscription accelerates Ellah Lakes’ journey into becoming one of the most significant indigenous agro-industrial platforms in Nigeria, with scale, diversification, and industrial capacity underpinning its long-term growth.
Managing a diversified land bank of over 30,000 hectares across four states requires immense operational capability. How does your current management and technology platform ensure effective and efficient operation at this massive, integrated scale?
Managing such a large and diverse land bank requires discipline, structure, and visibility. Ellah Lakes has invested in a modern operational framework built on real-time monitoring and centralised oversight.
Through geo-mapping, satellite imagery, and digital farm management tools, we maintain continuous visibility over crop performance, land utilisation, and operational progress across all locations.
This technology infrastructure is complemented by a team structure designed for scale. Each operational zone has specialised agronomy teams, field managers, and production supervisors, all coordinated through a central operations command that monitors performance metrics daily.
This ensures that growth patterns, yield forecasts, labour deployment, harvesting schedules, and input application are not only tracked but optimised. This combination of technology and structured oversight ensures that even at 30,000 hectares and growing, the company maintains control, efficiency, and operational discipline.
The application list closes on December 5th. What message do you have for potential investors who may be evaluating the offer right now regarding the scale of this opportunity?
For investors assessing this opportunity, this is a rare moment to invest in a company at a structural turning point. Ellah Lakes has completed the foundational work, which includes securing land, building out value chains, and establishing operational capability and is now entering the industrial phase where revenue and profitability accelerate meaningfully.
The capital being raised allows us to unlock the full potential of the assets we have built, complete the processing infrastructure that will drive higher margins, and position the company for long-term sustainable growth. Investors coming in now are participating at a point where the upside is substantial and the fundamentals are strong, supported by large-scale assets, clear demand, and a focused execution plan.
It is an opportunity to invest in a company that is not only growing but transforming at a moment when Nigeria’s demand for agro-industrial products is expanding rapidly.
In your view, what is the single most important factor that will solidify Ellah Lakes’ position as a leading indigenous agro-industrial giant?
The single most important factor is the company’s ability to integrate every part of the value chain into one cohesive system. Integration is what turns agriculture from a volatile business into a stable, scalable, and profitable enterprise.
By controlling the land, the cultivation, the processing, and the downstream market channels, Ellah Lakes reduces risk, increases margins, and ensures that it captures value at every stage. This integrated approach, combined with the diversity of our operations, creates a structure that can grow sustainably and respond to market shifts with agility.
As processing capacity expands and more of our land becomes productive, the business’s identity will shift fully from a farming business to a true agro-industrial operator. That shift will accelerate Ellah Lakes’ position as a leading indigenous agro-industrial company for years to come.
