Olam posts 13.1% drop in Q1 PATMI; launches S$601.7m rights issue

AGRIFOOD giant Olam International on Tuesday posted a 13.1 per cent drop in profit after tax and minority interests (PATMI) to S$155.6 million for the first quarter ended March 31, from S$179.1 million the year before.

The group also announced a three-for-20 rights issue which has been priced at S$1.25 per share. Olam expects to raise S$601.7 million in gross proceeds, which will be utilised to repay the debt used to fund its US$950 million acquisition of Olde Thompson last month.

In its business update, Olam said the drop in PATMI was mainly due to the absence of net exceptional gains, compared with the previous corresponding period.

Operational PATMI, which excludes exceptional items, grew by 15.5 per cent to S$157 million in the first quarter, from S$135.9 million the year prior. Revenue, meanwhile, was up 14.5 per cent to S$8.8 billion on the year, from S$7.68 billion.

The group said it has S$18.2 billion of total available liquidity to meet its working capital and capital expenditure requirements, including S$6 billion of unutilised credit facilities and S$8.4 billion of readily marketable inventories and secured receivables. As at March 31, Olam had cash and cash equivalents of S$3.8 billion, while net gearing stood at 1.72 times.

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The group observed a "discernible pick-up" in demand in the quarter due to China's rapid recovery and snapback from the worst impact of Covid-19-induced decline in growth in 2020 in major economies.

For its rights issue, Olam said its issue price of S$1.25 per share represents a 26.9 per cent discount to its last traded price of S$1.71 on Monday. The issue price also represents a 24.2 per cent discount to the theoretical ex-rights price per share of S$1.65.

The group will close its books on June 30 to determine the provisional allotments of the rights shares to entitled shareholders. The shares will trade "cum-rights" to the rights issue up to 5pm on June 28, and "ex-rights" from 9am on June 29, which means anyone who purchases shares on and from June 29 will not be entitled to any provisional allotments.

The rights issue is fully sub-underwritten by major shareholder Temasek Holdings, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Breeden Investments. This means Temasek has agreed to subscribe to any rights shares that are not taken up by other existing shareholders, with no sub-underwriting fees paid.

Olam has appointed BNP Paribas (Singapore branch), Credit Suisse (Singapore), DBS and HSBC (Singapore branch) as joint issue managers, who together with Mizuho Securities (Singapore), are appointed joint underwriters for the rights issue.

The group said the rights issue does not require shareholders' approval as it is within the share issue mandate approved by shareholders at the group's April 23 annual general meeting.

Shares of mainboard-listed Olam closed at S$1.71 on Monday, down S$0.04 or 2.3 per cent.