Olam International

[ongweehiang]

I wonder if anyone really understand Olam businesses. You need an army of analysts to figure out what they are really doing.

The coming demerger/listing of their branded business would be make the business a little easier to digest for retail investors.

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[Shrivathsa]

In case this has already been covered, apologies.

There is a Reuters article that Olam is probably making a London IPO for 3 Billion.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive...40308.html

There is a 3% jump in Share price today.

[Stocker]

Listings on LSE and Saudi are just talk and talk only ?

[weijian]

Listings on LSE and Saudi are just talk and talk only ?

In an IPO, the advantage is with the person who decides the timing (and subsequently the pricing). As such, the stakeholder who decides the timing has the advantage.

If the seller (Olam International) is able to decide the timing, it is advantageous to the seller and its shareholders. When food security and prices first came into vogue due to the Russia-Ukraine war in Feb2022, it made great sense to list and take advantage of it. Everything about food has slightly abated since then but as long as the seller isn't forced to list, it should make good use of its advantage to determine the timing.

[Shrivathsa]

Some updates on the listing plans. From the AGM minutes

GCEO informed the Meeting that the Board remained committed to unlocking shareholder value in
Olam by its plan to concurrently list and demerge ofi and OA from Olam. Olam was exploring and
evaluating other strategic options if its plans to list ofi and OA continued to be delayed. GCEO said that
there were 4 factors influencing Olam’s restructuring plans. The first factor was the macroeconomic
conditions, including the geopolitical state of the world (eg the Russian-Ukraine war and the Arab-Israeli
conflict). GCEO emphasised that while Olam was not in urgent need of raising capital through an initial
public offering (“IPO”) of ofi or OA, it was important that such IPO was carried out at the right time. The
second consideration influencing Olam’s restructuring plans was the condition of the IPO markets that
Olam was interested in. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, IPO markets around the world had slowed
down activity. However, there were suggestions that the IPO markets were picking back up. Olam was
also waiting for the regulatory approval from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) for the intended IPO
in KSA, given the significant prospects for OA’s growth in the Middle East region. The Board anticipated
that OA would experience strong interest from Middle Eastern investors in an IPO. KSA was in the
midst of implementing its regulatory regime for foreign companies to list on its market. When such
regulatory regime came into effect, OA would be the first foreign company to list in KSA. The last factor
for Olam’s consideration was the performance of its operating entities. If interest rates decreased as
predicted in H2 FY 2024, GCEO was of the view that 2025 might be the ideal time for Olam to carry out
its concurrent IPO and demerger plans for ofi and OA, subject to other conditions being met. GCEO
emphasised that the Board’s and shareholders’ commitment to implementing the concurrent IPO and
demerger plans for ofi and OA remained strong.

https://investors.sgx.com/company-disclo...MGYD9F5J5D

[Shrivathsa]

Fascinating, stock opened 10 cents up, then it turns out, Bloomberg had published an article at 9 am about Saudi Arabia buying out Olam Agri, this was on The Edge at 11 am. The SGX announcement was at 12.05 pm, to say no guarantee of any deal, stock traded further up. 

Should they not have called for a trading halt at 9 am when the Bloomberg article was published?