Olam Group said on Wednesday that the initial share sale in its agricultural unit would not happen by the first half of 2024, while reporting a 41% drop in annual underlying profit on high interest rates and lower contribution from Olam Agri.
In August 2023, Olam had said it was targeting the initial public offering of Olam Agri by the first half of 2024 and would then list its Olam Food Ingredients unit as part of a business overhaul.
However, the company on Wednesday backtracked on the IPO timeline for the dual listing of Olam Agri in Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and said it would “retain flexibility on the listing sequence, as well as exploring other strategic options to unlock value.”
Olam, one of the world’s biggest agricultural commodity traders, posted an operational profit after tax and minority interests of S$458.1 million ($340.95 million) for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of S$781.5 million a year earlier.
The Singapore company declared a final dividend of 4.0 Singapore cents per share, compared with 4.5 Singapore cents a year earlier.
Olam also launched a share buyback programme for up to a maximum of 5.0% of total outstanding shares within the current mandate.
Reuters