Olam seeks to raise $2.8B from London IPO of its food ingredients unit

Olam International, a renowned agribusiness and food firm has reportedly announced that it plans to raise more than $2.8 billion by kicking off an initial public offering (IPO) of its food ingredients unit, Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) in London in 2022.

According to reports, the Singapore-based company claims that it is working towards making a primary listing for the OFI business unit in London and another concurrent listing back home in Singapore by the end of the first two quarters of 2022.

Supposedly, the London IOP is part of that company’s a restructuring plan, which was first reported back in January of 2020. The restructuring saw Olam split up its business into two independently operating groups that focus on the global agribusiness and food ingredients.

At the time, citing evolving consumer tastes, Olam CEO, Sunny Verghese, had labelled the move as a simplification of its businesses so as to effectively capitalize on important market trends, and better position that company for a varied set of worldwide investors.

Temasek Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, which is a major investor of the food and agribusiness firm, has reportedly engaged Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and HSBC, to work on the proposed London IPO.

For the record, the announcement of the proposed London and Singapore listings follows the announcement of firm’s financial results for the first-half of 2021.

After tax as well as minority interests, the company’s operational profits grew by more than 26.7% to approximately S$421.5 million, or US$310.7 million within the first half of 2021. This is a significant jump from the S$332.7 million it reported for the same period in 2020.

Olam anticipates that the industry would continue on its path to recovery within the last two quarters of 2021, greatly benefiting from encouraging macro conditions coming from the bounce back of economies from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source credit: https://www.theasset.com/treasury/44524/olam-seeks-us28-billion-in-london-ipo-of-food-ingredients-unit

Akshay Kedari:

A qualified computer engineering graduate, Akshay Kedari takes pride in having his way with words. Following his passion for content creation, he writes insightful pieces on cmferesearch.com and a few other portals. Also endorsed with a short-term experience in web development, Akshay lends expertise procured from his core domain in the articles he pens down.