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Contingencies
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Contingencies

NOTE 12 – CONTINGENCIES

Legal matters

We are involved from time to time in claims and legal proceedings that result from, and are incidental to, the conduct of our business including business and commercial litigation, and employee and product liability claims.

At the time of filing, we have lodged a civil and criminal legal claim related to a misappropriation of inventory in Brazil. As at March 31, 2023, we have written-off $7.4 million of our inventory to cost of goods sold in our financial statements and a corresponding asset has not been recorded for the potential recovery of the resulting financial loss. While we feel confident the matter will not result in any significant further adverse impact to the financial results of the Group, there is a possibility that additional financial losses will be incurred.

In addition, unrelated to the Brazil matter, in the unlikely event there are an unexpectedly large number of individual claims or proceedings with an adverse resolution, this could in the aggregate have a material adverse effect on the results of operations for a particular year or quarter.

Guarantees

The Company and certain of the Company’s consolidated subsidiaries are contingently liable for certain obligations of affiliated companies primarily in the form of guarantees of debt and performance under contracts entered into as a normal business practice. This includes guarantees of non-U.S. excise taxes and customs duties. As at March 31, 2023, such guarantees which are not recognized as liabilities in the condensed consolidated financial statements amounted to $7.1 million (December 31, 2022 - $7.0 million). The remaining terms of the fixed maturity guarantees are up to 10 years, with some further guarantees having no fixed expiry date.

Under the terms of the guarantee arrangements, generally the Company would be required to perform the obligations should the affiliated company fail to fulfil its obligations under the arrangements. In some cases, the guarantee arrangements have recourse provisions that would enable the Company to recover any payments made under the terms of the guarantees from securities held of the guaranteed parties’ assets.

The Company and its affiliates have numerous long-term sales and purchase commitments in their various business activities, which are expected to be fulfilled with no adverse consequences material to the Company.