Archer-Daniels-Midland Co
For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Feb 20, 2025.
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FY2024 · Filed Feb 20, 2025
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Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (the Company) as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related Consolidated Statements of Earnings, Comprehensive Income (Loss), Shareholders’ Equity and Cash Flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “Consolidated Financial Statements”). In our opinion, the Consolidated Financial Statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2024 and 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated February 20, 2025 expressed an adverse opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
| Market or Fair Values of Certain Merchandisable Agricultural Commodity Inventories, Inventory-Related Payables, and Forward Commodity Purchase and Sales Contracts | |
| Description of the Matter | As explained in Notes 1 and 4 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, certain merchandisable agricultural commodity inventory and inventory-related payables are stated at market or fair value. Forward commodity purchase and sales contracts that qualify as derivative contracts are also stated at market or fair value. The merchandisable agricultural commodity inventory, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sales contracts are considered level 2 and 3 fair value instruments. As of December 31, 2024, the market or fair values for certain merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, inventory-related payables, forward commodity contracts in an asset position, and forward commodity contracts in a liability position were $6,961 million, $742 million, $831 million, and $760 million, respectively. |
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| Auditing the estimated market or fair values for merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sale contracts is complex due to the judgment involved in determining market or fair value, specifically related to determining the estimated basis adjustments, which represent the adjustment made to exchange quoted prices to arrive at the market or fair values for certain merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sales contracts. The basis adjustments are generally determined using inputs from competitor or broker quotations or market transactions and are impacted by specific local supply and demand characteristics at each facility and the overall market. Factors such as substitute products, weather, fuel costs, contract terms, and futures prices also impact these basis adjustments. | |
| How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit | We obtained an understanding, evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of controls over the Company’s determination of the estimated market or fair values for certain merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sale contracts. Our tests included controls over the estimation process supporting the basis adjustments. |
| To test the estimated market or fair values of certain merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sale contracts, our audit procedures included, among others, evaluating (i) the Company’s selection of the principal market, (ii) the inputs for the basis adjustments, and (iii) the completeness and accuracy of the underlying data supporting the basis adjustments. For example, we evaluated management’s methodology for determining the basis adjustment including assessing the principal market identified and sources utilized by management to support the basis adjustment. Specifically, we compared the basis adjustments used by management to competitor and broker quotations, trade publications, and/or recently executed transactions. Further, we investigated, to the extent necessary, basis adjustments that were inconsistent with third party available information. Finally, we evaluated the adequacy of the Company’s financial statement disclosures related to the estimated market or fair values of certain merchandisable agricultural inventories, inventory-related payables, and forward commodity purchase and sale contracts. | |
| Animal Nutrition Goodwill Impairment Evaluation | |
| Description of the Matter | At December 31, 2024, the Company’s total goodwill was $4.5 billion of which $0.9 billion was assigned to the Animal Nutrition reporting unit. Goodwill is assigned to the Company’s reporting units as of the acquisition date. As discussed in Note 1 and Note 9 of the Consolidated Financial Statements, goodwill is tested at the reporting unit level for impairment at least annually on October 1, or when events or circumstances occur that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying amount. The Company uses an income and market approach in its quantitative impairment tests and determined the fair value of the Animal Nutrition reporting unit exceeded its carrying value by 7% at the assessment date. |
| Auditing the Company’s Animal Nutrition goodwill impairment charge was complex and highly judgmental due to the significant estimation required in determining the fair value of the reporting unit. In particular, the fair value estimate using a weighted income and market approach was sensitive to significant assumptions such as revenue growth rates, projected EBITDA margins, and the discount rate. These significant assumptions are forward-looking and could be affected by future economic and market conditions and the performance of the Animal Nutrition reporting unit. |
| How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit | To test the estimated fair value used in the Company’s Animal Nutrition reporting unit goodwill impairment charge, we performed audit procedures that included, among others, assessing the methodologies used to determine the fair value of the reporting unit and testing the significant assumptions discussed above and the underlying data used by the Company in its analysis. As it pertains to revenue growth rates and projected EBITDA margins, we compared the significant assumptions used by management to historical results and current industry and economic trends, as applicable. We assessed the historical accuracy of management’s estimates. In addition, we involved our valuation specialists to assist with our evaluation of the methodology used by the Company to determine the fair value of reporting unit and testing of the significant assumptions used by management, including the discount rate. Specifically, we evaluated the components of the discount rate used by the Company with the involvement of our valuation specialists. |
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/s/Ernst & Young LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1930.
Saint Louis, Missouri
February 20, 2025
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited Archer-Daniels-Midland Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, because of the effect of the material weakness described below on the achievement of the objectives of the control criteria, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (the Company) has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on the COSO criteria.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The following material weakness has been identified and included in management’s assessment. Management has identified a material weakness related to the Company’s accounting practices and procedures for segment disclosures. Appropriate controls were not in place for the reporting of intersegment sales and for the application of disclosure requirements within ASC 280, Segment Reporting. The absence of adequate controls with respect to the reporting of intersegment sales impacted the completeness and accuracy of the Company’s segment disclosures and review controls over key inputs and assumptions utilized by the Company when performing the goodwill and long-lived asset impairment tests.
As indicated in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, management’s assessment of and conclusion on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting did not include the internal controls of Revela Foods, LLC (Revela), Fuerst Day Lawson Ltd. (FDL), PT Trouw Nutrition Indonesia (PT) and Totally Natural Solutions Ltd. (TNS), which are included in the 2024 consolidated financial statements of the Company and constituted 1.0% of total assets, after excluding goodwill and intangibles assets recorded, as of December 31, 2024, and 0.4% and 1.1% of revenues and net earnings attributable to controlling interests, respectively, for the year then ended. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting of the Company also did not include an evaluation of the internal control over financial reporting of Revela, FDL, PT, and TNS.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Consolidated Balance Sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related Consolidated Statements of Earnings, Comprehensive Income (Loss), Shareholders’ Equity and Cash Flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes. This material weakness was considered in determining the nature, timing and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2024 Consolidated Financial Statements, and this report does not affect our report dated February 20, 2025, which expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/Ernst & Young LLP
Saint Louis, Missouri
February 20, 2025
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