Company Information

Olam was established in 1989 by the Kewalram Chanrai Group (KC Group), one of the oldest international companies in Africa and Asia with more than 150 years of trading history. Over the past 30 years, Olam has developed into a global food and agri-business headquartered in Singapore with global market leadership positions in many of its businesses. Our success has enabled us to attract co-sponsors, strategic and long term investors, as well as world-class institutional investors, providing stability and business and financial strength to the Company.

A key objective in the past few years has been to realign our shareholder base by attracting shareholders who better reflect the long-term tenor of our strategy. Temasek Holdings, an Asia investment company headquartered in Singapore, became the majority shareholder of Olam after the completion of a voluntary general offer in May 2014. It owns 1,707,085,854 shares through Breedens Investments and Aranda Investments, representing 53.5% of the total issued share capital of Olam.

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC Group), a global integrated business enterprise headquartered in Japan, took a 20.0% equity stake in the Company and became a strategic investor and the second largest shareholder of Olam in September 2015. It now holds 554,689,829 shares or 17.4% of issued capital and has two representatives on the Board. The MC Group operates businesses with MC’s offices and subsidiaries in 90 countries and regions and approximately 1,400 group companies around the world. Its strategic investment in Olam sets the platform for a long term strategic partnership with Olam, with several mutually beneficial potential collaboration opportunities, including a joint venture in Japan which has been set up to market specific products of Olam that can leverage its strong distribution and retail presence and Olam’s deep origination expertise in those products.

The KC Group holds 223,769,921 shares or 7.0% of total issued capital.  The Olam key management team, represented by its executive committee, also has a significant shareholding in the company approximating 6.3% of the total issued share capital, which greatly aligns shareholder and management interests in creating value. These shares include 133,589,470 shares representing 4.2% of the total issued share capital of Olam held by Co-Founder and Group CEO, Sunny George Verghese.

As of 1 April 2019, Olam’s total number of issued shares is 3,190,571,878 (excluding treasury shares of 80,446,779).  Public shareholders (excluding Temasek, MC, KC and Olam management) hold approximately 15.8% of the total issued share capital. This share includes substantial shareholder Orbis Group at 6.9%.

Characteristics of Public Shareholder Base

As of end-March 2019, about 9.0% of total issued share capital (excluding treasury shares) was held by institutional investors.

Source: NASDAQ

Employee Share Option Scheme

The Olam Employee Share Option Scheme (the “ESOS 2005”) was approved by shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 4 January 2005. The ESOS 2005 rules were amended on 29 October 2008 at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company. The ESOS 2005 was terminated and expired on 3 January 2015 as a Share Grant Plan was adopted at the 20th Annual General Meeting held on 30 October 2014. However, the terms of the ESOS 2005 will continue to apply to the options granted under the scheme. As of 31 December 2018, the Company has 68,952,000 outstanding options.

Olam Share Grant Plan

On 30 October 2014, the Company had adopted the new Olam Share Grant Plan, a share-based incentive plan which involves the award of fully-paid shares, when and after pre-determined performance or service conditions are accomplished. Any performance targets set under the Plan are intended to be based on longer-term corporate objectives covering market competitiveness, quality of returns, business growth and productivity growth. The number of contingent shares granted but not released as of 31 December 2018 was 37,601,452. These include 9,178,000 and 17,645,073 shares which will be governed by the terms and conditions of the Plan, including the achievement of pre-determined targets during the three year performance period. The targets are Absolute Total Shareholder Return, Relative Total Shareholder Return, Return on Equity and Profit After Tax and Minority Interest Growth.  The number of shares delivered pursuant to the award granted will range from 0% to 192.5% and 0% to 200.0% respectively, of the base award.