By Peter Egwuatu

Shareholders of Omatek Ventures Plc have commended its Board of Directors for its effort in keeping the company afloat and surviving the harsh operating environment that prevailed during the last two years.

The shareholders at the combined Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the operating years ended, December 2010 and December 2011 said, “The management of Omatek Ventures has displayed unparallel zeal which has helped the company to survive and ready to get to the next level of its operations.”

At the AGM, Group Chairman of Omatek, Dr. Timothy Farinre, thanked all shareholders immensely for their patience, support and understanding of the peculiar situation of the company in the last three (3) years. He expressed his sincere apologies for the delay in conducting the two AGMs.

Result of the company’s performance shows that shareholders funds grew from N6,012,616 in 2009, to N6,449,331 in 2010, indicating an increase of 7 per cent. The company’s net assets and the group’s net assets appreciated by seven per cent, respectively.

He said that Omatek had to fund all its consumer schemes and all factory initiatives by itself without any funding from any bank in the last three years. Their banker – Afribank, had expressed their inability due to liquidation expected to fund many existing facilities.

“Omatek Consumer scheme with many states was a joint product with their banker – Afribank and this was cancelled suddenly. Their 10 year old mortgage cancelled and the offshore and local Guarantee facilities could not be sustained as the bank had lost its offshore guarantee as well. The company has commitments and loyalty to its customers and the states consumer schemes were still sustained by Omatek despite these sudden challenges from Afribank; a tough situation after just been listed or going public.”

Shareholders claimed that this is a phenomenom performance and rare situation for Omatek to have sustained its existence after all its working capital and facilities were suddenly truncated.

The shareholders were impressed with the boldness and determination to ensure that the company maintained its activities despite all odds.

The Group Managing Director, Engr. Florence Seriki, stated that this is the benefit of buying from first class manufacturers as the company’s turnover was majorly from the sale of another factory initiative – the 24 hour Alternate Power Solution- a Hybrid solution with Solar, UPS and Inverters together with the new Omatek LED Bulbs that last 3 to 5 years without replacement.  The importation of this was a Semi Knocked Down process as opposed to the computers that are completely knocked down components and raw materials.

“These were easier to fund and this is a clear cut evidence of the immense opportunity in Omatek. If over a billion was equally done in this respect, then with funding available, the expected turnover of the company is expected to sky rocket” she noted.