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Sucrivoire SA, the Ivory Coast sugar producer controlled by tycoon Jean-Louis Billon's family through the SIFCA group, has postponed its expansion program by one production season after its inventories jumped 56% in a year.
Inventories stood at 49.27 billion CFA francs ($84.1 million) on June 30, up from 31.58 billion CFA francs a year earlier, the company said in its first-half financial report, published Nov. 2 in the official bulletin of the Abidjan-based regional stock exchange, the BRVM. The 17.69 billion-franc ($30.2 million) increase ties up cash that management now plans to spend on making its existing factories more reliable. The company did not set a new date for the expansion and did not say how much of the stock is sugar ready for sale.
Sucrivoire kept its long-term goal of producing 140,000 metric tons of sugar a year in Ivory Coast.
Output up, sales flat
The company produced 58,800 tons of sugar in the first half of 2026, up 33.5% from 44,058 tons a year earlier. Output for the 2025-26 season, which ended in June, rose 16% to 91,626 tons, though a shortage of workers to cut cane forced it to stretch the harvest.
Sales did not keep pace. Volumes rose 0.9% to 73,252 tons, including imported sugar the company trades, and revenue slipped 1.4% to 42.3 billion CFA francs ($72.2 million). Sales fell 18% from January to April, which the company blamed on competitors' promotions, sugar sold outside official channels and disrupted orders. Discounts from May won back buyers but cut the average selling price by 1.2%.
The net loss narrowed to 4.79 billion CFA francs ($8.2 million) from 6.71 billion CFA francs ($11.5 million) a year earlier.
The expansion has already absorbed heavy spending. Sucrivoire bought 25.16 billion CFA francs ($42.9 million) of fixed assets in 2025, up from 18.57 billion CFA francs in 2024, and issued 36 billion CFA francs ($61.4 million) of convertible bonds to fund the program. Cash generated by operations fell to 10.38 billion CFA francs in 2025 from 18.3 billion CFA francs a year earlier.
Investors have still backed the stock this year. Sucrivoire shares closed at 2,990 CFA francs in mid-June, up about 190% since January and more than triple their low of a year earlier, making it one of the best performers on the BRVM in 2026.
The Billon family
SIFCA, founded in 1964 by Pierre Billon, Jean-Louis Billon's father, is one of West Africa's largest agribusiness groups, with palm oil, natural rubber and sugar operations in five countries and more than 33,000 employees. Its other BRVM-listed units include palm oil producer Palmci and rubber company SAPH.
The Billon family owns about 44% of SIFCA through Parme Invest. Singapore's Wilmar International Ltd. holds about 27%, and the heirs of former executive Yves Lambelin hold about 21%. Alassane Doumbia, Lambelin's adopted son, chairs the board, and Pierre-Emmanuel Billon is managing director.
Jean-Louis Billon, a former trade minister and the family's best-known member, has stepped back from running the business to focus on politics. He finished second in Ivory Coast's October 2025 presidential election with 3.09% of the vote. The family's assets were valued at 327 billion CFA francs ($558 million) in a 2023 ranking of the country's richest families, the highest in Ivory Coast.
Figures were converted at CFA586 to the dollar.
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