Breedens-led consortium to gain full control of commodity trader Olam

A Breedens Investments-led consortium is planning to gain full control of Olam International through the acquisition of the remaining stake in the company.

A unit of investment company Temasek Holdings, Breedens along with consortium partners own a combined majority stake of 52.5% in the commodity trader.

Partners in the consortium include Aranda Investments, Olam founding family shareholders and ten Olam executive committee members, including CEO Sunny Verghese.

The consortium intends to make an all-cash voluntary conditional offer for the remaining stake as well as for the outstanding convertible bonds and outstanding warrants issued by Olam.

The proposed offer price of S$2.23 per share represents a premium of 11.8% over the last traded price of Olam, and the highest transacted price in the 52 weeks preceding the offer announcement.

With this acquisition, Breedens seeks to provide a stronger shareholder base for Olam and support its growth plans in the long term.

Breedens director David Heng said, "Members of our consortium are all long term shareholders of Olam. We have invested in Olam over the years, and share a common investment philosophy to invest and build for the long term."

"We believe a successful offer will provide Olam with a stronger and more stable shareholder base to support Olam’s strategy and business model for the long term," added Heng.

"We prefer to keep Olam as a listed company, which will continue to be guided by its board and management team. However, we will reassess our position if the minimum public float requirements are not met at the close of the offer."

Olam International is a supply chain manager and processor of agricultural products and food ingredients, supplying products across 16 platforms in 65 countries across the world.