Friday 7 November was a busy day for Asba Meats. The company made an interim payment on an agreed settlement with Tuffy Financial Services, the creditor that had appointed the receiver to Asba Meats in September. That case is due back before the High Court on 2 December to have the receivership completely lifted from Asba Meats, but in the interim, the appointed receiver has left the Shannon facility.

A spokesperson for Asba said: “This marks an important step forward for Asba as it focuses on rebuilding operations and continuing to serve its valued customers and farming partners. As part of its restart strategy, Asba Meats has resumed operations at its abattoir on a limited basis – currently two days per week – as the company brings staff back and re-establishes production. Alongside its own processing, Asba will also focus on expanding its contract killing services for local farmers and businesses and welcomes new inquiries.”

On the same day, Asba Meats’ director Tarequr Rahman Khan was in Ennis District Court over outstanding unpaid debts to farmers of over €300,000.

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The spokesperson for Asba told the Irish Farmers Journal that: “In response to recent reports, Asba wishes to clarify that the amount owed to farmers is significantly less than the figure published in recent media coverage of the Agri Food Regulator case. The company continues to work constructively with all stakeholders to ensure obligations are met and relationships remain strong.”

Asba Meats is also facing further court challenges. Separate to the appointment mentioned above, a petition to wind up the company is due to be heard in the High Court on 1 December. That petition was lodged by Dr Kashif Siddiqui of 3 Carpenterstown Manor, Carpenterstown Road, Dublin, who described himself in the notice as a creditor of the company.

A list of shareholders of Asba Meats published at the end of 2020 showed Siddiqui was the owner of 100,000 €1 “A” ordinary shares in Asba Meats. The total of issued “A” shares at the time was €2,838,950. By the end of 2023 – the last year for which accounts for Asba Meats are available, the number of “A” ordinary shares issued by the company had risen to over €4m.

The company continues to work constructively with all stakeholders to ensure obligations are met and relationships remain strong

Asba Meats also has 100 ordinary shares in issue, all of which are owned by Tarequr Rahman Khan. These 100 shares are the only shares of the company which come with voting rights, meaning the holders of the “A” ordinary shares have no control over the running of the company.

This arrangement might seem unusual, but it is often used in Islamic Finance where raising capital through borrowing money and paying it back with interest is haram, or against Islamic rules. Instead of borrowing money, a company raises funds from investors through equity which then can earn a share of the profits of the company or can be bought back by the company at a future date.

In further outstanding cases, Asba Meats is also listed as defendant in a High Court case brought by Herriot Haulage Ltd, and is a joint defendant in a separate case taken by Athenry Co-operative Mart Ltd. Neither of those cases yet have a date listed for hearing.

The most recent available unaudited accounts for Asba Meats, for the year ended 2023, show the company’s net asset position of just over €5m, made up of €1.6m in stock, €2.8m in debtors and €2.2m in fixed assets. Creditors totalled €1.4m, with €670,147 of that classed as “trade creditors”. As mentioned above, there was just over €4m in equity, and the company reported retained earnings of €927,360.

Of the €2.8m in debtors, just over €1.7m is classified as “owed by connected parties” with €636,800 owed by Asba Foods Limited and €1,075,945 owed by Teermaclane Property Limited.

Asba Foods is 100% owned by Tarequr Rahman Khan and Teermaclane Property Limited is 50% owned by Tareq Khan and 50% owned by Olivia Khan, who shares an address with Tareq.

The most recent available accounts for Teermaclane and Asba Foods are for 2022 (Asba Foods have submitted 2023 accounts to the Companies Registration Office, but they are the 2023 accounts for Asba Meats).

The accounts for Teermaclane at 22 March 2022 show assets of only €2, and no liabilities. When the Irish Farmers Journal previously talked to a representative from Asba Meats about the actions of the receiver appointed to the company, it was said that the abattoir in Ennis is owned by Teermaclane.

A search of the property register shows that the Ennis abattoir is still registered in the name of Kepak Cork Unlimited who had purchased the site from John Kelly Meats in 2017. When contacted, a spokesperson for Kepak said that the abattoir had been “sold to Asba” in May 2021.

A fourth company, Asba Property Holdings Ltd, is 51% owned by Asba Meats and 49% owned by Tarequr Rahman Khan. The most recent available financial statement of that company, dated 25 June 2022 showed assets of €712,013.

According to land registry records Asba Property Holdings owns 55.29% of the Asba Meats property in Shannon, Co Clare, with Grant Thornton Pension Trustees Limited owning the balance.

Comment

The information contained in the annual accounts of the various companies linked to Asba Meats and Tareq Khan is dated, so will not give an accurate picture of the company’s current financial position. However, what is clear is that Asba has a somewhat complex corporate structure of connected companies, with considerable sums of inter-company loans.

It is also clear that companies owned or controlled by Tareq Khan have not being keeping up to date on filing their accounts. For suppliers to Asba, and those owed monies by the processor, the concern is more about the delay in payments rather than the delay in filing accounts.

The spokesperson for Asba Meats is bullish about the company’s prospects, saying it is “looking ahead with confidence”. The challenge for Asba is not its own confidence about the future, but whether it has the confidence of potential suppliers.