Olam Group's first-half net profit jumped nearly six-fold to $1.9 billion, but the gain came almost entirely from one-off divestments rather than operating performance.
The headline number and what drove it
Reported net income for the six months ended June 30 rose 488.8 percent from $323.8 million a year earlier. Roughly $1.8 billion of that total stems from the sale of a 44.58 percent stake in Olam Agri to a Saudi fund and the disposal of the Mindsprint digital-services unit, plus an accounting revaluation of the remaining Agri holding. The Agri transaction, first unveiled in February 2025, cleared its final regulatory hurdle across 21 jurisdictions in April.
Continuing operations tell a different story
Strip out the discontinued businesses and the picture flips. Profit from the remaining Olam Group and its food-ingredients arm, ofi, dropped 66 percent to $55.6 million from $163.7 million. Revenue slid 18.3 percent to $12.5 billion, pressured by sharply lower cocoa and coffee input prices and reduced volumes in the rump group. Earnings per share came in at 50.23 cents, though only 1.04 cents came from continuing operations; the other 49.19 cents arrived via the divested lines.
Balance sheet and shareholder returns
The divestment proceeds deleveraged the balance sheet: net gearing fell to 0.93 times from 2.09 times a year ago, as net debt shrank and ofi's working-capital borrowings eased. The board declared a seven-cent total dividend, one cent regular plus a six-cent special, up from two cents previously, payable August 31. The special component effectively recycles asset-sale cash to shareholders.
Guidance and market reaction
Management said it expects the remaining businesses to deliver "resilient operational performance in 2026" while flagging that an escalation of the Middle East conflict could undermine that outlook. Shares dropped 6.9 percent to $1.21 shortly after the release, suggesting investors are pricing the operating decline more heavily than the one-time windfall.