Tingo. Weird company.
I run with one of two ideas.
1) It’s all simply the most brazen and outright fraud.
2) It’s Polly Peck. It’s fintech and farmers and food and – but what if it’s really lending to farmers? Who pay say 25 to 35% interest (base in Naira is 18%) and agree, in return, to supply the company? Which gets booked as profit. But of course there’s going to be a loss on the Naira/$ rate. Which can be booked as an exceptional, not across the P&L.
I’m not actually sure whether their cash base and the associated interest rates are high enough for 2) to give the numbers they’re reporting. But just to put it out there. They’re re-running Polly Peck and it “works” for the same reason. High interest rates, high inflation, falling currency. Book the interest income across the P&L, the FX losses against the balance sheet. Looks good until you run out of money.
I read “agri-fintech” then assumed it was all bollocks.
Tingo – verb – Indonesian
Meaning – To borrow things from a friend’s house, one by one, until there’s nothing left.
From The Meaning of Tingo – Adam Jacot de Boinod
Which also gave me the intriguing:
Tsuji-giri – verb – Japanese –
Meaning – ‘to try out a new sword on a passer-by’?
Way things are going, I can foresee a use for the last one.
The interrogative there just slipped in of its own accord. Apologies. I’d be the last one to query a proficient user of the verb.
BiS: SOP in the Edo Period and before. Although it’s a novel, I think James Clavell’s ‘Shogun’ gives a real flavour of Japanese mindset in those days.