Singapore, December 21, 2007 – Wilmar International Limited ("Wilmar") and Olam International Limited (“Olam”) today announced that their 50:50 joint venture company Nauvu Investments will acquire an additional 10% stake in Palm-CI from SIFCA Group for a consideration of approximately US$17.2 million following SIFCA's purchase of the 10% share in Palm-CI from the government of Cote d'Ivoire.
The acquisition will raise Nauvu’s interest in Palm-CI from the current 16.65% to 26.65%.
The financial impact of Nauvu’s investments in SIFCA Group, Newco and Palm-CI will be revised as follows:
About Wilmar International
Wilmar International Limited, founded in 1991 as a palm oil trading company, is today Asia’s leading agri-business group. It is amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange. Its business activities include oil palm cultivation, edible oils refining, oilseeds crushing, consumer pack edible oils processing and merchandising, specialty fats, oleochemicals and biodiesel manufacturing, and grains processing and merchandising. Headquartered in Singapore, its operations are located in more than 20 countries across four continents, with a primary focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and Europe. Backed by a staff force of 60,000 people, over 160 processing plants and an extensive distribution network, its products are sold to more than 50 countries globally.
Over the years, Wilmar has established a resilient integrated agribusiness model that captures the entire value chain of the agricultural commodity processing business, from origination and processing to the branding, merchandising and distribution of a wide range of agricultural products. Through scale, integration and the logistical advantages of its business model, it is able to extract margins at every step of the value chain, resulting in significant operational synergies and cost efficiencies.
About Olam International
Olam is a leading global integrated supply chain manager of agricultural products and food ingredients, sourcing 14 products with a direct presence in 56 countries and supplying them to over 4,000 customers in more than 60 destination markets. With direct sourcing and processing in most major producing countries for its various products and a staff strength of more than 7,500 worldwide, Olam has built a global leadership position in many of its businesses, including cocoa, coffee, cashew, sesame, rice, cotton and teak wood. Headquartered in Singapore and listed on the SGX-ST on February 11, 2005, Olam currently ranks among the top 40 largest listed companies in Singapore in terms of market capitalisation and is now a component stock in the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI). It was recently named as one of Singapore’s top 10 globalised companies by International Enterprise (“IE”) Singapore in its third annual Singapore International 100 Ranking 2007.