Olam seeks premium listing on the London Stock Exchange
A. Shekhar, CEO of Olam Food Ingredients welcomes listing move
Olam International has made a significant move to confirm its operating group, OFI food ingredients division including cocoa, is targeting a primary listing on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange, as well as a listing in Singapore, writes Neill Barston.
As the business explains, OFI was created in early 2020 following a re-organisation of Olam to unlock and maximise Olam’s long-term value, including an IPO share offering and concurrent demerger by the first half of 2022.
The company works with some of the world’s best-known food and beverage brands, food manufacturers, retailers, and food service outlets, as well as several niche and premium regional players. It has establishes ranges across natural and plant-based products, delivering sustainable and innovative solutions to a global customer base.
With deep-rooted presence in the countries where the raw materials for its cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices ingredients are produced, OFI has built sustainability and traceability into its core business model, enabling better quality and more reliable and transparent supply. OFI has a unique global scale and presence across the value chain to deliver delicious and nutritious food ingredients and solutions in an environmentally sustainable way.
In 2020, OFI generated annual revenues of US$9.1 billion (S$12.5 billion) and EBIT of US$0.6 billion (S$0.8 billion). Olam’s 2021 Interim Results announced today demonstrate the strong and resilient performance for OFI in the first six months of the year, providing it with good momentum going into 2022. The release can be found in full here.
A. Shekhar (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of OFI, welcomed the move: “The decision to pursue a stock market listing is a major milestone for OFI and we are looking forward to presenting this exciting opportunity to investors globally through a proposed primary listing in London and a concurrent secondary listing in Singapore. The primary listing on the LSE will give us access to London’s large and diverse investor base, with its deep and liquid capital markets, and enable us to benefit from its strong understanding of and research coverage across the food and beverage sector. The concurrent listing in Singapore will also enable us to retain our strong local shareholder base and further tap into growing investor appetite in Asia.
“The results reported today show that OFI is a strong business uniquely positioned to take advantage of long-term consumer trends within the food and beverage industry. Our integrated global network, servicing large, attractive and growing end-use categories within an expanding on-trend ingredients portfolio, makes us a compelling investment for anyone looking to tap into growing global demand for food that is healthier, traceable and sustainable.”
