Our Heritage

We have, since our inception, remained focused on a single commodity asset class, namely the agricultural complex. This focus has helped us cumulate and compound our skills over time, build deeper insights into these product markets and consolidate our competitive position. This has also helped us build market-leading positions in these businesses.

Following a pathway of adjacency-based growth, we have grown from a single-product, single-country company in 1989 to a globally integrated supply chain manager across 16 platforms in 65 countries to over 12,300 customers.

The Start Up: 1989-1992

Olam was established in 1989 in Nigeria by the Kewalram Chanrai Group to set up a non-oil based export operation out of Nigeria, with the primary objective of securing hard currency earnings to meet the foreign exchange requirements of other Group Companies in Nigeria. The success of this venture led to Olam establishing an independent sourcing and export operation in agricultural products.

Olam moved its headquarters to London and operated under the name of Chanrai International Limited. The business, which began with the export of raw cashew nuts from Nigeria to India, soon expanded into exports of cotton, sheanuts and cocoa beans from Nigeria. During this period, we developed our origination capability and developed close and productive relationships with growers and suppliers.

Growing the Business: 1993-2002

Olam’s growth strategy has been driven by a clear focus on our core business, namely, supply chain management of agricultural products and food ingredients and a systematic and repeatable formula for adjacency expansion based on that core. We grew during this period by moving into businesses which shared geographies, channels, costs, capabilities, suppliers and customers with our existing businesses. We expanded from Nigeria to other countries in West Africa and then to East Africa and India. Our move into the various origin countries followed the deregulation of agricultural commodity markets in these countries.

Olam International Limited was incorporated in Singapore in July 1995 and Olam relocated its operations from London to Singapore in 1996. On relocation, Olam’s global agribusiness was reorganised and consolidated under Olam International Limited, with Singapore becoming the corporate headquarters and key marketing and trading centre for all our operations.

After the relocation, we expanded our operations across South East Asia, Central Asia and Europe.

Continuing Expansion, Private Equity and Public Flotation: 2002-2005

In 2002, Russell AIF Singapore Investments Limited (managed by AIF Capital limited) became the first external investor to take an equity stake in Olam. This was followed in 2003 by Temasek Holdings, through its subsidiary, Seletar Investments, followed by International Finance Corporation (IFC).

After nearly a decade as a highly successful private company, Olam International Limited was listed on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange in February 2005. It was a clear landmark and a key inflection point in Olam’s history. The Kewalram Chanrai Group today has a 20% stake in the Company while Temasek Holdings, through its various companies, today holds 16% of Olam. The Management Team of Olam has a 9% shareholding in the company, thereby aligning shareholder and management’s interest in creating value. Olam’s free float owned by the public shareholders accounts for approximately 55% of the total issued share capital of the company.

During this period, we continued to expand our global footprint in the Middle East, North and South America, Eastern Europe and Russia while simultaneously growing the number of businesses to 15.

Building a Global Leader: 2006-now

In 2006, we developed and communicated a growth strategy that focused on both organic and inorganic approaches. Pursuant to this plan, we rolled out our Mergers and Acquisitions framework in 2007. We focused on securing excess returns by acquiring businesses which were both earnings and value accretive, offering a clear strategic fit to our core business and with a potential to catalyse our position in the supply chain for that product.

Our strategy of combining organic and inorganic growth has worked well and acquisitions have played an important role in the supply chains for several businesses in our portfolio. These acquisitions have helped us strengthen our competitive position and with an effective integration of these acquired businesses into the larger Olam business, we have been able to extract the identified synergies and have added value to the businesses we acquired.

Olam today is a global leader in the supply chain management of agricultural products and food ingredients. We have consciously chosen to be focused in one single commodity asset class but within that to be diversified across multiple products, geographies, suppliers and customers and our results reflect the strength of our diversified strategy.