Olam wants its stock mojo back, but it won't be easy

COULD Olam International be winning back the market's attention after sorely missing out on it for awhile now? If it hasn't yet, the Singapore-based agri and food giant is intent on making a play for it.

Fresh from unveiling two back-to-back three-year plans to take the company to 2024, Olam's long-serving chief executive and co-founder Sunny Verghese said the company is asking experts how best to cast - or rather, recast - itself to investors.

A key component of the six-year plan lies in the tinkering of its bloated portfolio, which spans the entire agriculture value chain - in its own words, "from seed to shelf" - in 70 countries. In doing so, it will generate US$1.6 billion by pulling out of four businesses including sugar and rubber, the small profits of which have made them dispensable; Olam will instead wager more than double that in 12 businesses where it has an edge, such as edible nuts, spices, cocoa and coffee.