Olam to focus on food ingredients business, sell the rest
Singapore-based food conglomerate Olam Group said on Monday it would invest $500 million in its food ingredients business and divest all remaining businesses and assets over time.
The commodity trader, which counts state investment company Temasek as its largest shareholder, also said it plans to allocate $2 billion to repay all debts of its remaining businesses and make them self-sustaining, before pursuing their sale.
Olam said the plan took into consideration the need to strengthen its balance sheet and the resilience of its operating groups "in the face of unprecedented macroeconomic uncertainties including tariffs".
Olam will use the estimated $2.58 billion it receives from the sale of its stake in Olam Agri to Saudi Arabia's agricultural and livestock investment firm SALIC, along with the proceeds from future divestments, for the restructuring.
The equity investment in Olam Food Ingredients will allow the company to explore options including a potential concurrent listing in Europe and in Singapore, it said.
Olam also plans to restart share buybacks and progressively distribute proceeds from the sale of its other assets to shareholders via special dividends.
In 2022, the company delayed a planned London listing for the food ingredients unit, citing market volatility amid the war in Ukraine.
Its remaining businesses comprise startups incubator Nupo Ventures, technology and business services firm Mindsprint and Olam Global Holdco, which owns the group's non-core assets such as Olam Palm Gabon and Packaged Foods, its website showed.
Shares of Olam climbed 3.5% to 88 Singapore cents per share on Monday morning, outperforming the 1.9% rise in the benchmark index.
(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue and Cynthia Osterman)
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