An arm of Singapore’s state-owned investment company, Temasek Holdings Pte has offered to take over Olam, one of the world’s top three coffee and rice traders in a deal that would value the company at US$4.2 billion. The bid which is a 12% premium to Olam’s last closing price reflects the rising desirability of agricultural assets and comes on the heels of China’s state-owned COFCO Corp. taking over Dutch grain trader Nidera BV last month and possibly forming a joint venture with Noble Group’s agricultural business. Temasek is already a major stakeholder in Olam which also trades other commodities such as cotton and almonds. Temasek plans no major changes to the business which it plans to keep listed unless the minimum float requirements of 10% are not met.
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