Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Can I invite you to come into the room to have a seat for coffee? My pleasure to welcome all of you to Olam Group's presentation of the financial results for the first half, ended 30th June 2025. I'm Hung Hoeng from Olam Group's Investor Relations. I'm pleased to host and moderate this briefing today, along with my senior executives of the group. Immediately to my right, Olam Group Co-Founder and Group CEO, Sunny Verghese. Group CFO, N. Muthukumar, seated on my extreme right. None but not the least, the CEO of OFI, Olam Food Ingredients, A. Shekhar . Let me call your attention to the cautionary note on forward-looking statements. This will be taken as read and fully understood.
Let me call your attention to the cautionary note, and like usual, our Group CFO, Muthu, will kick off the presentation proper and provide the context and changes in how our group results are presented in this first half, versus the prior periods, before taking us through the group's consolidated P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow. Thereafter, for segmentals, the respective CEOs of your operating groups will discuss each operating group's financials. Shekhar for Olam Food Ingredients, and Sunny for Olam Agri, and the Remaining Olam Group. We will then briefly recap the updated 2025 reorganization plan and progress made in this first half, and close the presentation with the business outlook prospects and the main takeaways. Thanks for your attention, and I'll pause and hand the voiceover to Muthu.
Thank you, Hung Hoeng. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks once again for joining us for the first half 2025 group results. For a change, I'm going to start with the preamble, because some of you would have seen the change in presentation that we have back to this half, first half of 2025, on account of the conditional sale of 100% of Olam Agri to SALIC, which was approved by the shareholders of Olam Group in the extraordinary general meeting on July 4th, 2025. On account of this, the accounting standards and rules state that we have to now classify Olam Agri as a discontinued operations held for sale, and we have to only present the remaining part of the Olam Group, which is Olam Food Ingredients and the Remaining Olam Group assets.
Pardon me and be patient with me if I sound a little professorial now in trying to take you through three terminologies. The first one is H1, that is as presented. Because we are now carving out Olam Agri as a discontinued operation, we are only presenting the combination of OFI and Remaining Olam Group as part of, in line with accounting standards and rules. Obviously, for comparative purposes, we have to restate the first half of 2024 as a like-to-like comparison comprising only of the performance of OFI and Remaining Olam Group. That is called as H1 2024 represented.
However, to give you a full context of how the three operating groups, which is OFI, Olam Agri, and the Remaining Olam Group, have performed in the first half of 2025 as compared to the first half of 2024, which we presented as a consolidated group on August 14th, 2024, just exactly a year ago, we are now going to present H1 2025 adjusted. H1 2025 adjusted will mean the combination of OFI, Olam Agri, and the Remaining Olam Group's operating and financial performance combined to have a like-to-like comparison to what we presented in H1 2024. With that preamble, let me go to the first slide.
This is exactly in line with what we have presented in the SGXnet that we had uploaded this morning, in line with the accounting standards and rules, which means that this is a combination of OFI and Remaining Olam Group only, and excludes Olam Agri on a line-by-line P&L and balance sheet consolidation. However, because of the conditional nature of the sale of Olam Agri subject to regulatory approvals, the profit or loss that is coming from the first half financial performance of Olam Agri has been included in the group's P&L as a single line item in the P&L, and I will take you through that. Similarly, the assets and liabilities of Olam Agri have now been collapsed from the group's balance sheet into one line for assets and one line for liabilities.
That is the fundamental nature of change in terms of how we are representing and which will be done till the Tranche 1 of the sale of Olam Agri to SALIC is completed. With that, you can see that for the OFI and ROG, Remaining Olam Group combined, the first half 2025, we were at 2.2 million tons of volume, a flattish volume performance. However, a 50% increase in revenue growth to $15.3 billion, primarily on account of OFI as OFI executed the high-price contracts, bases the high input prices, especially in cocoa and coffee, that we witnessed through 2024. The EBIT excluding Olam Agri stood at $708.7 million, a healthy 85.5% increase, with OFI recording a double-digit EBIT growth to $535 million. That translated into an operational PATMI for the group at $327 million.
Please be reminded that this $327 million, as I'm explaining, includes the Olam Agri's first half PAT as discontinued operations. That translated into a PATMI of $324 million. The percentages are a little bit meaningless because there was a big swing in the profitability of Remaining Olam Group, which was at a loss situation in the first half of 2024, has swung into a positive operational performance in the first half of 2025. As you all know, cocoa and coffee prices in the OFI portfolio, notwithstanding dairy and spices prices, had peaked during 2024, had come off in 2025, the first half, but still remained elevated. That has resulted in a significant reduction in utilization of working capital, especially as OFI was executing the high-price contracts and bringing down the inventory levels.
That had reduced our free cash flow negative position from a $5.5 billion this time last year to just under a billion dollars, a change of $4.4 billion positive. That automatically translated into a lower gearing for the OFI plus ROG combination at 2.09x compared to 2.6 x in the first half of 2024. This is basically, at a glance, what is H1 2025 reported with the H1 2024 represented. Now I move to the third aspect of what I explained as a preamble, which is H1 2025 adjusted. This means that we are now simulating a pro forma P&L or a financial performance for Olam Group Limited, which will have all the three operating groups' results on a line-by-line simulated consolidation.
That translates into roughly 28 million tons of volume for the first half for the entire Olam Group, a 14.5% increase in volumes primarily coming off from Olam Agri, especially in the grains, oil, seeds, and edible oil platform. Translated into a $33.3 billion of revenue, a 23.8% increase on a year-on-year basis. As I had explained, the bulk of the revenue increases had come from OFI operating group. You will see that the operational PATMI is still the same at $327.1 million because even in the represented H1 2025 presentation, the profit of Olam Agri has been included as a one line in the P&L and hence at the PAT or the PATMI level, the results are the same.
$327 million of operational PATMI or a $324 million of PATMI resulting in the same free cash flow to equity of roughly under a billion dollars of negative free cash flow to equity, but a huge swing of $4.4 billion this time last year. You will notice the gearing has changed from 2.6x in end of H1 2024 to 2.83 x as we have now combined the net debt to equity impact of Olam Agri also in this simulated performance. It was 2.09 x excluding Olam Agri in the end of H1 2025 and has become 2.83 x on a simulated basis including Olam Agri's net debt to equity.
I will just quickly go into this slide, which is a new slide, which is a very busy slide, but trying to put everything together in terms of how H1 2025 has been presented after we have considered Olam Agri as a discontinued operation, which is the first column that you are seeing, which I presented two slides ago. The second column is a like-to-like comparison of H1 2024 performance, stripping out the Olam Agri performance this time last year. That gives you a percentage of change on a volume, EBITDA, EBIT, PATMI basis.
We have now disaggregated the PATMI into continuing operations, which is OFI plus Remaining Olam Group, that stood at $177.4 million, and discontinuing operations, which is Olam Agri, stood at $146.4 million for the first half of 2025, on comparison of a - $92 million for continuing operations in the first half of 2024 and $140 million for the first half of 2024 for discontinued operations or Olam Agri. Now, if you look at the fourth column, this is the simulated financial performance for the entire group, including Olam Agri on a line-by-line consolidation, translating into 28 million tons of volume, roughly $33.3 billion of top line, $1.58 billion of EBITDA, and translating that into $1.2 billion of EBIT.
You will recall that the first column EBIT, which excludes Olam Agri, stood at $708 million of EBIT, and including Olam Agri's EBIT, on the fourth column, you will see that it is $1.2 billion of EBIT, a 35.5% increase as compared to $900 million roughly this time in the first half of 2024. That translated into $324 million of PATMI or $327 million of operational PATMI. Again, disaggregated, the fourth column into a continuing operations of roughly $181 million of operational PATMI, which means OFI plus Remaining Olam Group, and $146.4 million of discontinued operations, operational PATMI, a marginal decrease of 3.7% against the first half of 2024. Point to note, OFI has delivered a double-digit EBIT growth of 12.7% to $535 million, primarily led by successful pass-through of costs, which was a big concern most of us expressed this time last year.
There has been an improved performance by the Remaining Olam Group operationally, and that also includes, in addition to strong operating performance by the Remaining Olam Group assets, support by an unrealized foreign exchange gain on account of significant appreciation of euro against U.S. dollars in the first half of 2025. Most of you will know the euro to U.S. dollar ended in December 2024 at roughly 1.03, and that currently is at 1.17, a significant 12% increase that has resulted in an unrealized foreign exchange gain that has also helped as a tailwind for the improved operating performance for the Remaining Olam Group. Olam Agri, which is the discontinuing operations, had recorded a marginal decrease in EBIT from $495 million, despite significant impact from U.S. tariffs and the difficult market conditions.
Finally, pleased to announce, in spite of all of these, the Board of Directors have declared an interim dividend of $0.02 as compared to $0.03 in the first half of 2024. This is a disaggregated look at volumes for the entire Olam Group on an adjusted basis. We grew from 24.2 million tons to roughly 28 million tons of volumes, as you can see, primarily the growth in volumes has come from Olam Agri, roughly 3.5 million tons, and more so from the grains, oilseeds, and edible oils platform. In terms of profits, we were at roughly $900 million of EBIT on a combined basis that had grown to $1.2 billion of EBIT for the first half of 2025. Again, you can see that OFI grew its EBIT by $60 million, Remaining Olam Group grew by $266 million.
A word of caution, it includes the unrealized foreign exchange gain that has been recorded in the first half of 2025 because of sharp appreciation of euro against U.S. dollars and a marginal decline in EBIT of $12 million from Olam Agri, resulting in a healthy EBIT of $1.2 billion or a 35.5% increase year- on- year. We talked about the operational PATMI at $327 million, which grew from a $48 million of group operational PATMI in the first half of 2024 to a $327 million of operational PATMI, primarily led by strong operating performance growth.
A $327 million of strong operating performance growth offset by an increase in net finance costs of $55 million and a marginal increase in taxation for the first six months of this year, aided by lower exceptional items of $10 million and also a lower contribution from the non-controlling interest, resulting in a PATMI of $324 million or an operational PATMI of $327 million. On a consolidated basis, here again, you can see that there is only a marginal increase in invested capital, roughly half a billion dollars, primarily led by an increase in working capital due to the seasonality, especially in Olam Agri, resulting in a gearing unadjusted net debt to equity of 2.83 x. As you all know, the real indebtedness of the company or the group is primarily looked at after adjusting for RMI or readily marketable inventories and secured receivables.
Adjusted for RMIs and secured receivables, you will see that our net debt to equity is actually well below one time at 0.98 x as of 30th June 2025. A very healthy free cash flow, I talked about it, which primarily swung from a - $5.4 billion this time last year to just under a billion dollars at $945 million in the end of H1 2025, primarily led by a decrease in commodity prices and very well utilization of working capital efficiency by OFI, resulting in a $4.4 billion of positive swing during the first half of this year. We have sufficient liquidity with, as usual, diversified pools of capital.
We have roughly $1.5 billion of cash, $7.5 billion of RMI or near cash, roughly $650 million of secured receivables, and more importantly, unutilized bank lines of north of $3 billion, resulting in a total available liquidity of $12.8 billion or roughly $13 billion, with a very healthy headroom of $5.6 billion. I would like to take this opportunity to really say, during these difficult market conditions, macroeconomic situations, geopolitical conditions, both OFI and Olam Agri have been able to successfully refinance its debt facilities, not only for 2025, but also spilling over into the first half of 2026.
Till date, OFI has refinanced up to $2.4 billion of US dollars of its debt facilities, and Olam Agri has refinanced $3.85 billion of US dollars of its debt facilities, resulting in a very healthy situation in terms of our ability to fund, finance any changes that can happen either in commodity prices or in market conditions. I once again take this opportunity to thank all our bankers who are here and also participating to our webcast. Thanks once again. With that, I will close my presentation and hand over to Shekhar. Thank you.
Thank you, Muthu. Let me add a warm welcome to all of you. Thank you for joining us today. I get a chance to see all of you only once in six months, so I'm going to remind you just briefly about OFI, what brought OFI together. You're all aware of this.
We have five large global leading platforms, fully integrated platforms in cocoa, coffee, nuts, spices, and dairy. The key part of our strategy is how we can extract full value and the power of integration at scale within each of these platforms. In the last five years, since the inception of OFI, we are increasingly also enhancing the power of integration at scale across these five platforms. That comes from the common customers, the common capabilities, the common channels that we focus on, and the common categories of end-use applications, whether it's bakery, confectionery, snacking, beverages, et cetera, which, as you can imagine, use all these products fairly significantly. The power of portfolio is in the power of the platforms that have been built over the last 30, 35 years, and the increasing amount of integration by which we can provide greater value-added ingredients in each of these platforms.
We have invested behind that and are continuing to invest behind that. What we can do to extract value across these platforms, for which you know that we launched the food and beverage solutions platform last year, is trying to build solutions for our customers using all these ingredients and more, within the categories that we talked about. I look back at the last five years, and we have been speaking at different times with various things happening across the world. The way I look back is this proves the resilience of the portfolio, the diversified portfolio, and the power of the portfolio to work through COVID and COVID recovery, a few wars and some more after that, the interest rates hike, significant hikes in commodity prices. Through this period, and up and down, obviously, it has been very volatile and very uncertain, and it's not been an easy ride.
I think what it talks about is that during this period, we have been able to ride these cycles with lead and lag, obviously, in managing the volatility, but through that, being able to improve our EBIT and our EBIT margins, stay focused on changing the portfolio shape with which we set up this business in terms of the ingredient solutions and global sourcing, ensuring that our global sourcing platform becomes even stronger and provides a platform for managing this volatility. Frankly, without the strength of that platform, without the strength of the integration, without the boots on the ground and what we have built over the last 35 years, we could not have delivered to our customers through these cycles.
If anything, the last five years, and including the last six months, have proven the resilience of this model and the validity of this model supported by our customers and all our other partners. That's hopefully reflected in small part in the last six months' results. Muthu outlined the overall results of the group with all the adjustments and representations. In the case of OFI, this is the way we presented it last year. Compared to that, we are pleased to say that there's been a good growth in EBIT over last year. What's more pleasing is that it is with improving margins, which is reflected in the EBIT per ton. The mix of the solutions and global sourcing, which is now at around 67%- 70% and has grown from something like 50%-50% or 55%-45% when we started the journey of OFI.
It has happened through a steady mix of investments that we have made in fixed assets across both greenfield as well as acquisitions, and you know all the investments that we have made and we have talked about in the past. That's a big part of improved margins. It's also the kind of solutions we are offering, whether it is single ingredients or mixed solutions, the private label solutions, and the business in private label has grown quite substantially during these last five years. It's a mix of all that. It's a series of things and deliberate choices we have made in terms of strategy and continued investments despite all the volatility that we have faced and the world has faced in this period. Quite pleased with that trend, which continues.
Roughly when we started this journey, we were roughly at about $500 million or $650 million EBIT, which is now, and this is the half-year results. Last year, we reported roughly about $1.1 billion EBIT. It's been a steady growth, and this half signifies the same trajectory of growth and the same momentum. Obviously, this has happened at fairly significant elevated levels of capital. You all know what's been happening over the last 18 months and continues at this point in time in terms of elevated cocoa and coffee pricing, especially. There have been bits and pieces in cashew and pepper also, which have seen elevated prices, but the impact of cocoa and coffee is substantive on the OFI portfolio. Compared to last year, this time, that increase is just 3.7% compared to a 12.7% increase in EBIT. We have just got roughly a 3.5% increase in capital.
That is happening because of the way we are managing the capital, allocating the capital, ensuring cycle times during this period so that we can extract a risk-adjusted premium which deserves the size of invested capital as well as the risk and the enhanced risk in this portfolio. It's coming out of a mix of various strategic EBIT growth is coming out of a mix of various strategic choices we are making, but also coming from us seeking and getting from our customers an enhanced cost of capital as well as cost of risk that is deployed. That's at the overall level.
Taking a quick look at the global sourcing level. G lobal sourcing potentially took a big chunk of the effect in the first six months of last year when there was a sudden increase in cocoa prices at that time, followed by coffee prices in the second half of Q2. So we had sold contracts, and we were trying to work through those sold contracts at that point in time. It's jumped back with a roughly, so the 68% growth is not against a tough first half last year, but nevertheless, it's done it on almost similar capital and with significantly higher EBIT per ton. That is, again, a very strong reflection of the strength of this platform, the strength of our presence deep in the rural areas of all the major producing countries, our ability to source and offer sustainable crops across the portfolio of products that we do.
It is, and do that in a cost-effective and capital-efficient manner. That still remains a very strong part of our future, has been built over a long period of time, but it's going to be a significant part of our future as well. On the ingredient solution, we had last year at this point in time because we had the presence in these geographies through the global sourcing platform, we had done very well in the first half of last year. Against that, there is a very modest, there is a marginal decrease in the EBIT with a slight increase in our capital. If you look at the past history, you've got all the records. If you look at the kind of margin improvements that this segment has shown and these numbers reflected compared to the last few years, this is still quite healthy and quite significant.
On a half-year to half-year, it doesn't show that kind of progress as compared to the global sourcing, but these numbers are quite significant compared to the last five years' history. We feel quite pleased with the kind of margin improvement that this segment is also showing. I'd like to close by just kind of highlighting that it's a good first half, pleased with the momentum, but also pleased with how we are positioned for the second half where we don't expect the volatility to come down or the world uncertainty to come down. We feel far more secure with the injection of the $500 million of capital, which happened in the end of June, which is included in these results, as well as what we announced today as a refinancing that Muthu talked about of $2.1 billion.
I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to all our partners here in the room and outside. The fact that 18 global banks supported this refinancing in these kinds of markets is a testament to your partnership, and we thank you for that. With the equity and this refinancing in place, we feel quite confident and cautiously optimistic about the second half and time ahead. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you, Muthu. Thank you, Shekhar. My presentation, I will cover five topics. First, we'll focus on the performance of Olam Agri for the first half of 2025. Second, we will switch to the performance of the Remaining Olam Group for the first half, the financial performance. The third part, we will talk about the updated reorganization plan and the progress on that reorganization plan. Fourthly, we will look at our view on outlook and prospects for the Olam Group in the second half of the year. Finally, we'll summarize it with the key takeaways from today's first half results briefing, which I hope by the time we finish, all of those takeaways will already be quite explicit and we might not need to spend too much time on it. Okay, first, let's focus on Olam Agri and look at the first half performance of Olam Agri.
Before we get into the numbers itself, I would like to just reiterate why Olam Agri is a differentiated proposition relative to our peers in the industry. The first way we differentiate Olam Agri's business is that we are an asset-light business. As of the end of the first half, we had total invested capital of about SGD6.74 billion . All of these are Singapore dollars. Out of that, roughly SGD1.92 billion was fixed capital, whereas SGD4.82 billion was working capital. Almost 72% of our invested capital is in working capital, and only about 28% is in fixed capital. Relatively speaking, compared to our peers in the industry, we are very asset-light. That has many implications on some of the other differentiators that we have built around the fact that we are an asset-light business.
The second key differentiation for us is we have a low overhead cost per ton. Our overhead cost per ton is about SGD1.5 per ton, and that is declining every year as a result of growing scale. As Muthu mentioned in his summary, almost 14% volume growth we have seen in Olam Agri in the first half of this year. As we grow and increase our scale, our overhead per ton is low and much lower than most of our peers in the industry who are much more asset-intense and therefore also have operating costs which are higher and therefore overhead costs per ton which are higher. This means that in Olam Agri, the spread that you need over and above your standing still cost of SGD1.5 a ton is much lower than what our peers need to even break even.
We therefore have better margins as a result of having a low overhead cost per ton. Thirdly, this flexibility of being asset-light, combined with the fact that we have a low overhead cost per ton, allows us to get to our third differentiator, which is we have very high asset turns. We have a cash-to-cash cycle on an average over the last five years of 44 days, which is amongst the best in the industry. We buy in our origination and merchandising business, which is one of the three segments that we have. In that business, we buy typically FOB, so we have none of the primary procurement origination infrastructure in the key producing countries and therefore very low overhead costs. We sell CNF, and we don't really deliver to customers or break bulk at the customer end.
Buying FOB CNF for a large part of our volumes in the origination and merchandising business allows us the capacity to have very low cycle times, which enhances our returns and also lowers our interest costs. Fourthly, we are skewed in terms of the configuration of our portfolio or assets in excess return markets. For example, in our wheat milling business, the bulk of the investments that we have made are in Nigeria, in Ghana, in Cameroon, in Senegal, and many such markets that we are contemplating to enter into in both Asia as well as in Africa. Because of the heightened risks in these markets, both in terms of foreign exchange volatility, in terms of political and geopolitical risks, macroeconomic risks, et cetera, the margins inherently are better in these markets, and the competitive intensity is slightly different in these emerging markets or frontier markets, as we call it.
Given that configuration of distribution of our assets, etc., we enjoy excess returns, and that is demonstrated by the fact that we have mid-teens return on invested capital, and we have return on equity, which this year, which is a tough year for us, is still going to be about 27%, 28%. If you look at the last four or five-year average, it has been in excess of 40%. Return on invested capital and return on equity as a result is also significantly better than our peer group. We also have a diversified portfolio across non-correlated asset classes. We are not just in grains, not just in oil seeds, not just in edible oils, which are fairly correlated asset classes. We are also in agri-industrials like fiber, which is cotton, rubber, wood, agricultural services, AG services like the risk management solutions business, the trade and structured finance business.
This part of the portfolio is very uncorrelated to the food and feed part of the portfolio. In agricultural commodities in all our businesses, the only way we manage volatility, we can't escape volatility. We are in a business that is inherently cyclical and volatile. Despite the best will in the world, you have to contend with it and live with it. The only way to manage and navigate that volatility is to be diversified, and it does help if you're diversified across unrelated or uncorrelated asset classes. That is at the heart of Olam Agri's differentiation and how we develop profitable pathways to build and create value. Before I get again into the financials, one more thing that I wanted to talk about is the industry context under which we have delivered this performance and results.
I won't name names, but I will just take our listed peers, and you can go and do your homework and understand who the listed peers are. There are not many listed peers. Peer one has shown in the first half of this year, they have a 37% decline in PATMI compared to the prior corresponding period last year. Competitor two has declined by 39% in the first half compared to the prior year. Competitor three has declined 73% in the first half compared to the prior year. Competitor four has grown 2.4% in the first half compared to last year, positive growth. If you look at Olam Agri, as you've seen, we have a slight decline in EBIT, which is our operating profit. We have a slight increase in our PATMI, about 4.3%. That is the industry. The industry has had a tough two years.
This year has been particularly tough because it has been accentuated by the extreme volatility on tariff policies, which has impacted trade flows in different trade corridors. That uncertainty continues. So far, those tariffs which have been settled for the countries that have entered into some kind of an agreement have not fed into inflation as yet. Even the last inflation print that we saw a few days ago says that inflation has ticked up, but not ticked up to the extent of the average tariff increases. The U.S. before this tariff policy had an average tariff globally, we had an average tariff of 2% that was expected to go up initially 15%. Now, for all the deals that have been completed, it's averaging at about 17%. That is a big growth from 2% to go to 17%. How that cannot feed into inflation numbers is perplexing. It's a mystery.
We will see what happens in the next inflation print in September. We would expect that it will tick upwards. We will see core inflation going to now 3.1%, 3.2%. Therefore, we'll have to contend with higher inflation, and that will become manifest as we go down the year when the full impact and effect of both the fundamental tariffs, but also the other tariff measures that are being implemented. This will have some impact on growth, which will have some impact on the interest rate policy, the monetary policy, which will have an impact on what our interest burden and interest costs would be. Also, our volume growth, et cetera, will be based on if overall growth is going to slow down, if inflation is going to pick up, if interest rates are likely to come down more gradually. All those are uncertainties. We do not know.
The performance of the first half in the case of Olam Agri has to be seen in light of what the sectoral developments have been on the macroeconomic front, as well as a geopolitical front. We will see what happens in today's meeting in Alaska on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has a big impact on our business going forward. We will see how the Middle East conflict resolves and some of the other conflicts which have come to some kind of settlement. All of this will have some impact on the macroeconomic context and the geopolitical context under which we have to operate. All right. With that, we can go into the results problem. If we go to the first slide here,\. O ur operating profit, I said, marginally declined 2.3% from $506 million- $494 million.
What is important in this slide to understand is that there have been different stories in the three different segments that we have. In the first segment, which is the food and feed origination and merchandising segment, the one in blue, dark blue, contributed in the first half of last year to 19% of our operating profits. This year, it has declined eight percentage points and contributed to 11% of our total operating profits. That was more than made up by the share of the processing and value-added business, which has grown from a 59% share of total operating profits last year, first half, by 11 % to a 70% share. Then you have the remaining food, fiber, agri-industrial, and ag services segment, which declined by about 3% in terms of relative share to the total operating profits.
Most importantly, our margins have come down from $23 a ton to $19 a ton, which is a 17% decline in the overall margins across all the three segments put together in the first half compared to last year, $4 per ton lower. In the case of the invested capital, there's only been a marginal increase in invested capital, largely on account of the fact that although we had a 14% volume growth, we had a decline in prices across most of the Olam Agri portfolio. Therefore, invested capital, we were able to optimize, and invested capital declined by 1.7% despite a significant growth in underlying volumes during the first half of the year. The U.S. dollar weakness has also resulted in some of the impacts when we talk about the invested capital expressed in the reporting currency in SGD. That is the overall situation.
If you go down to the first segment, which is the food and feed segment, as you can see, let me just go back one more time. As you can see, our invested capital in these three segments is quite balanced. 32% of our invested capital compared to the same 32% last year is in the origination and merchandising business segment. About 33%, both last year as well as this year, is in the processing and value-added segment. The fiber, agri-industrial, and AG services segment contributes to about 35% of our invested capital. That has not changed between last year and this year. The share of contribution of the processing and value-added business in the first half of this year is disproportionately higher for the reasons that we will explain. Let's go to the first segment, which is the food and feed origination and merchandising segment.
It was a very, very tough first half. Our operating profits declined from $99 million- $56 million, which was a 43% drop in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year. If you look at the margins, margins declined 40% from $5 a ton to $3 a ton. Increased volumes has compensated for some of that drop contributed by the declining margin per ton, but overall, we've had a $2 per ton EBIT drop, which is a 40% drop in margins. In terms of the working capital, you can see that this segment is extremely asset-light, which are some of the points that I talked about or emphasized when I talked about how we are differentiated. Only 4% of our total invested capital in this segment is in fixed assets, and 96% of the invested capital in this segment is in working capital.
Within the various elements of this origination and merchandising segment, we have a trading business, a cash and prop trading business in grains, oil seeds, and edible oils. We have a freight trading business. If you look at those component parts of the business, we've had margin pressures in the trading business. We've also had significant margin pressures in our freight trading business. In our freight trading business, we decided last year that we want to wind down and close our Cape business, which is one of the asset classes in freight that we deal in. We are in the process of now winding down and exiting the Cape business. That has included some restructuring costs and extinguishing all of the contracts or running down all of those contracts. That has resulted in some headwinds. We've also had declining margins in our Panamax business and our Ultramax, Supramax business.
Margins have been under pressure as a result of all of the trade uncertainty emanating from the volatility in the tariff regime. The freight business has particularly underperformed in the first half. We go on to the next segment, and that is the food and feed processing and value-added segment. As I mentioned, this segment has done extremely well. Growth in operating profits of 16% from $297 million- $345 million in the first half of this year. Similarly, the EBITDA per ton margins has also grown from $122 per ton to $138 per ton. There has been a 13% growth in margin per ton, which is about $16 per ton, which really compensated for some of the weakness that we had in the first half in the origination and merchandising side of the business. Not much change in the invested capital, a 2.3% decline in the invested capital.
In this segment, 56% is fixed capital and 44% is working capital. This business comprises of our wheat milling and therefore flour production business, of our pasta manufacturing business, of our B2C value-added flour business like semolina and other products that we make. It is an integrated feed manufacturing, poultry feed and fish feed principally, and in protein, which is day-old chicks. All of these things put together comprise this segment. They have all done well this year, including the integrated feed and protein business, as well as the poultry feed and fish feed business, and also the flour milling and the pasta manufacturing business. Overall, strong performance across the board in all the component parts of the processing and value-added business. Finally, we go to the last segment, which is the fiber and agri-industrial segment. We had a 15% decline in operating profits from $110 million- $93 million.
Our margins also declined by roughly 21% from $92 per ton to $73 per ton. The story here is different across this segment. This segment has fiber, which is cotton. It has agri-industrials, two products, rubber and wood. It has AG services, the third component part, which has two businesses, a risk management solutions business and a trade and structured finance business. We've had a very bad year or a very tough year in the cotton business. The cotton business has underperformed in the first half. Our rubber business has compensated greatly to that shortfall by having an outstanding first half. Our wood business has performed to plan with some logistic issues that we've had in the Republic of Congo. We had some additional costs, but that has also performed well.
We've had strong performance from the risk management solutions business and excellent performance in the trade and structured finance business. The shortfall in cotton has to some extent been compensated by the strong performance in rubber, on-plan performance in wood, and on-plan performance in AG services , and significantly better than planned performance in the trade and structured finance business. This business, as you see, 25% of our investment is in fixed assets, and there has been a marginal decline in total invested capital. About 75% of our investment in this business is really in working capital. Only 25% is in fixed capital. With that, we can move on to the second part of the presentation, which is talking about the Remaining Olam Group. Muthu had really already explained this. I'll go into more details. The first thing I want to highlight is the Remaining Olam Group businesses.
There are 10 constituent businesses. Out of the 10 constituent businesses in the Remaining Olam Group, we already announced that we have sold one of those businesses, which is the Arise Port and Logistics business. We expect that transaction to complete in the last quarter of this year, and then we would have successfully exited the Arise Port and Logistics business. We are therefore then left with nine businesses, but the Arise Port and Logistics business still is a business. Still, the sale is completed. All of those businesses have performed better than last year, all of those businesses. There has been a turnaround in the operating performance of the remaining component parts of the Remaining Olam Group. We have traditionally classified it into de-prioritized assets, earmarked for exit, and gestating and continuing assets. Those classifications are now not so relevant.
Overall, what is relevant to focus on is how are these component businesses done. What is heartening to note is each of these underlying remaining businesses have all performed strongly and performed better than last year, which is one of the reasons why there's a turnaround in the overall performance from a big loss in the first half of last year. The operating performance has improved, and the foreign exchange gains have combined to give a solid turnaround as far as the Remaining Olam Group businesses are concerned. With that, I'll go to the third part of my presentation, which is really to focus on reinforcing the recalibrated reorganization plan. We had a reorganization plan that we announced in 2020, January of 2020. We have now announced a recalibrated reorganization plan sometime in April of this year.
At that time, we had explained what the changes in the reorganization plan are. Here I've just summarized, both based on the plan that was announced in January of 2020 and the recalibrated plan updated and announced in April of 2025. The core elements behind this plan are these five things I got on the screen here. Our first element of reorganization was to create sharper focus in our portfolio by trying to reduce the complexity of a very large diversified portfolio that Olam Group was by breaking it down into three new operating entities: Olam Food Ingredients, OFI, Olam Agri, and the Remaining Olam Group. That has definitely brought about greater focus and improved performance in all three operating entities as a result of that sharper focus.
Second is we wanted to attract the natural long-term investors or owners of this business who are aligned with the underlying strategy of these three operating groups. Different investors liked different businesses within the Olam Group. We wanted to make sure we gave them an opportunity. If they wanted to be more invested in OFI or more invested in Olam Agri or more invested in the Remaining Olam Group, they had an opportunity to do that and they had the opportunity then to get the right long-term natural owners of these businesses to be the shareholders of the business. The third step or the third element of this was we then, having separated it, wanted to make sure that we were able to illuminate, monetize what we felt was the hidden value in each of these businesses.
We did that by actually raising capital in these businesses and to discover what is the actual inherent value of each of these businesses. We sold Olam Agri first in 2022, a 35.5% of Olam Agri in 2022. We crystallized that Olam Agri's valuation at $3.5 billion, which was more than the combined market capitalization of the entire Olam Group, which means OFI and the Remaining Olam Group, were free because this exceeded that market cap. We have now sold the balance 64.5%, which we own, to SALIC in a follow-on transaction in two tranches. The first tranche, we sold 44.58%, and we are hoping for that transaction to complete. Just a quick update on the progress of the transaction. We have filed for regulatory approvals in 22 jurisdictions. Out of the 22 jurisdictions, where EU is considered one jurisdiction, we have got seven approvals already.
We are answering queries on three jurisdictions which have asked for some follow-up questions and clarifications. That process to get the regulatory approvals, which is very important, is on track. We will see how it develops and completes, but that is one important pathway and milestone. The second is that we had to get a shareholder approval. As Muthu mentioned, we had an EGM on the 4th of July, where we have received an overwhelming majority of 99.5% support from our shareholders approving the sale of Olam Agri. That is done. That is the same template with some variations that OFI is also pursuing to illuminate the hidden value that we see in OFI through private or public market options to raise capital for growth and to discover what the intrinsic inherent value of the OFI business is.
By having created these first three steps or executed these first three steps, we have potentially avoided what was plaguing Olam Group for all these years, which is that we were being attributed a significant whole core discount or a multi-business operation discount or a conglomerate discount. By creating these three entities and focusing these three businesses and raising capital in public and private markets, once all that is done, we believe that we will be able to avoid the conglomerate discount that is currently being attributed to the Olam Group. Finally, we want to enable the Remaining Olam Group, o ne of the main changes in the recalibration that we have done of the reorganization plan that we first announced in 2020 is now, we have said in April of this year that of the three entities, Olam Agri is being sold 100%.
The Remaining Olam Group, we are not saying we'll be having an independent standalone future with our ownership. We are saying we are not the natural long-term rightful owners of those businesses. We want to responsibly divest all the, one, we have divested out of the 10, we've got 9 left. We will divest all the remaining assets and businesses in the Remaining Olam Group over time. As we do that and realize the proceeds from the divestment, we will pay a special dividend to our shareholders as and when that will happen. We will not sell all those assets to one investor. We will sell them to different investors. It will happen gradually and progressively.
The plan is that we will find the right homes and the right investors for these businesses who are interested in these businesses, who have the capacity and capability to take it to full potential, and who have the interest and willingness to be owners of those businesses. That is what we will do. That was our reorganization plan. We have said that of the proceeds of the sale of Olam Agri, we will allocate $2 billion to make the Remaining Olam Group debt-free and self-sustaining. That is the first decision we took. The second decision we took is that we will infuse or invest another $500 million of equity into OFI, which has already been done, as Shekhar explained. The third is that we will responsibly divest all the remaining assets within the Remaining Olam Group and pay a special dividend to shareholders as and when that is done.
These were the two main sources of funds that we rely on in completing this plan: the Olam Agri sale proceeds and the net sales proceeds of all the divestments that we are going to do. The fact I have already mentioned that the sale of Olam Agri to SALIC has unlocked that value. We sold Olam Agri, the first transaction that we did, that was sold at 3.47 x book. This transaction that we have done because our book has gone up is being done at $4 billion valuation, which means 3.1 x book. All of that where the second transaction is at a 14% premium to the first transaction.
It has now been the key that has opened the door for us to focus on OFI and do the same thing with OFI in terms of unlocking the full potential value of OFI . This is the total plan that we are currently in the process of executing. This was explained at the EGM. This was explained at the EGM. This was explained when we announced the recalibrated reorganization plan. With that, I'll go to the fourth and penultimate part of this presentation, which is really the business outlook and prospects. I don't think I need to repeat this because I said about some of this in the Olam Agri preamble. Shekhar mentioned this when he announced the OFI results and Muthu also alluded to this. There is nothing new from what I said or Shekhar said or Muthu said.
Those business outlook and prospects are uncertain in the next six months. We are being cautious in making sure that we are able to navigate whatever the outcomes are. If there's no resolution to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, what will we do in those circumstances? If there is no change to the Middle East conflict and there's no peace, what will you do and how will you cope? If inflation is going to kick up, if monetary policy is therefore uncertain, if growth is going to taper down, all of which we will only know as we get more data, which is why the Fed always keeps saying we are data-dependent. We don't have any pre-fixed views. They're all beginning to now come to the conclusion that the neutral rate is no longer 2% under these circumstances.
I think everybody is now beginning to accept that the neutral rate is more like 3% or a little above 3% under the circumstances that we are operating. All of that I won't repeat. Most of you, as bankers, et cetera, have read this and it impacts all your businesses. I'm sure you're aware of all that. The key takeaways, again, we don't need to repeat; all this has been said. These are the four key takeaways. With that, I'll turn it back to Hung Hoeng and be open for any questions on the floor.
Thank you, Sunny, and thank you to Muthu and Shekhar for your presentation. We are ready to take your questions. If you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand and allow our colleagues to bring the microphone to you and tell us where you come from. Alfred?
Hi, my name is Alfred , Bloomberg Reporter. Could you please share with us your outlook or a rough view of cocoa and the coffee prices going forward regarding the fact that prices are quite volatile, and we noticed that the company's inventory hedging magnificently increased as well during the period?
Yeah, Alfred, you ask this question always, and part of my answer is there is no view we have of prices going forward. I think we don't run our business based on a price view. We like to manage the risk of volatility, so we'll always be tracking prices and all aspects of prices, not just the absolute price, but all the other related derivative positions that are there on multiple markets for both cocoa and coffee, which are driven slightly differently. At this point of time, in both these markets, we are in the middle of the season before the big crops come. In cocoa, you know that West Africa is a large crop which is ahead. There is still some uncertainty about weather. The cocoa prices from the peak of $12,000 had dropped down to as low as $7,500, $8,000.
They've gone up a bit in recent times, partly because of some weather concerns in West Africa. That uncertainty is probably going to last another two to four weeks before the real crops start. The crops have already started, so we'll see if there's no supply shock. We believe that the market is headed into a bit of a surplus going forward. The weather part is uncertain. There's also pricing uncertainty because of the tariff, and therefore the markets are quite different between New York and London. That's also driving some amount of uncertainty, and that will continue to remain. That's really on cocoa, where the market action in the first six months has seen a peak of $12,000 and a bottom of $7,500 and now trading around $9,000 or thereabouts. That will probably be reset once the full crop estimates are there for the West African crop.
I n coffee again, there is a little bit of uncertainty right now, primarily driven by Brazil, where there have been recent cold events. Coffee prices, which had topped $4, have dropped down below $3. In the recent, let's say, five or seven trading days, they have gone up a bit. Because of weather reasons, there is that uncertainty, which will, if nothing transpires, crops are otherwise looking good and there's a potential surplus going forward for the 2025-2026 crop and beyond. At this point in time, short term, we believe that there could be more volatility. Prices could go up because of either supply shocks, tariffs, and a generally low cover in both these products because of the enhanced prices in the past 12- 18 months.
Beyond that, if the crops are all okay, we believe there's a more benign view of the prices going forward.
This is Mia from Business Times. Thanks so much for sharing. First of all, I have quite a few questions. I want to double-check that under the ticker clauses of the transaction with SALIC, I believe that there will be daily accumulative consideration of around more than $600,000 every day, right? How would that accumulative consideration be allocated to? I believe that number would be more than $2.6 billion as of the end of 2025. That is one question. I understand that Sunny will be moving to SALIC after this whole transaction is completed. How's the progress of finding a new CEO for Olam Group going? That is also tied to the third question, which is what will happen to Olam Group after Olam Agri has left it? Also, OFI is expected to be demerged and going IPO somewhere. Any update on that? Thanks.
I'll ask Muthu to answer the first question. I'll take the other two questions.
Okay, thank you. The first is the equity ticker that you talked about. The transaction kicks in effective June 1st, 2025, and it goes up to the end of the completion of tranche one. That will get accumulated and that will be a consideration that will be paid by SALIC over and above the $4 billion equity value consideration that we have agreed with them on a 100% basis. It is going to be in addition to the $1.8 billion roughly for the first tranche of 44.58% that Olam Group is selling to SALIC of Olam Agri. That's number one. For tranche two, you would have seen that there is a 6% equity IRR. There's a 6% IRR that will be compensated by SALIC till the time they exercise their call option.
These are two additional sources of consideration for Olam Group over and above the $4 billion base equity valuation on a 100% basis that was agreed with SALIC.
Is that clear on the first one?
Can you wait for the microphone, please?
The total consideration between tranche one and tranche two, we have talked about roughly $1.8 billion at the end of completion of tranche one, $800 million at the end of completion of tranche two, which means a total of $2.6 billion. These two sources of other sources of consideration that I talked about, which is the equity ticker, which is payable from June 1st, 2025, till the completion of tranche one. The tranche one completion, we are not sure because it is subject to regulatory approvals being obtained by SALIC for the completion of tranche one transaction. Depending on when the tranche one completes, the equity ticker on a daily basis will get accrued for the $1.8 billion consideration. Similarly, after the completion of tranche one, the tranche two 6% IRR source of consideration starts peaking.
That will again depend on when SALIC will exercise their call option between the next three years after completion of tranche one. As you know, the seller, Olam Group Limited, also has a put option, which can be exercised only at the end of the third year after completion of tranche one. The outer limit for completion of tranche two would be three years from the completion of tranche one. Through that period, if SALIC does not exercise their call option during that three-year period, they will have to pay the 6% IRR over and above the $800 million consideration that they have to pay at the end of completion of tranche two.
That is in addition to the $2.58 billion base consideration?
That is correct.
I believe that.
That's what we call additional consideration.
Yes.
Base consideration is the $2.58 for both tranches.
Yes, yes.
This additional consideration depends on how many days.
Yes.
The equity ticker. You pointed out we will get $440,000 a day for the equity ticker. If the transaction completes on December 31, you can calculate per day and cumulatively how much that will amount.
Yes, I see. I know I'm aware that based on the past announcement, you mentioned that $2.58 billion will be used to finance the reorganization plan. What would those additional considerations be used for?
We can use it to repay debt or pay a dividend. It could be any one of those uses.
I see.
That is up to the group to decide.
Okay. Yeah. Got it. Got it.
Yeah, second question.
Yeah. Second question. Yes. When the transaction completes, whenever it completes, our expectations will complete in the fourth quarter. It can complete anytime. We are not in control of that. Whenever the transaction completes, they are now agreed with Olam Group. When I say they, the new buyers, the new investors have agreed with Olam Group that there will be a transition period where, say, for another six months after the completion, that I can provide support and continuity in my current role. After that time, after that grace period or transition period, I will move on to Olam Agri. We have therefore said in our AGM and the EGM that we have already started a search for somebody to replace me. That process is underway. We will make announcements as and when that search is complete.
We expect the person to be in place well before I have to leave to go to Olam Agri. We have time, on the basis of what I've said, we have time until June to make sure there's a replacement to help continue as the CEO of Olam Group.
Third question on Olam Group after Olam Agri's divestment.
Yeah. After Olam Agri's divestment, we have two remaining entities as o ne is OFI. Our focus is really on OFI. There is the Remaining Olam Group with the nine component assets. We will sell each of those assets. Whether we can sell all of them in one year, two years, three years, we don't know. Some assets will take more time. Some assets will happen quicker. We've already appointed bankers for some of these assets. We have already started a process to sell these assets. As I mentioned, we have already sold one out of the 10 assets. That is progressing. We will keep you informed as and when there are developments in that divestment process. Once Olam remaining group assets are all sold off, we will decide what we want to do with the Remaining Olam Group.
The idea is that the Remaining Olam Group will be sold off and wound up if we successfully sell all the remaining assets, which means then we are left only with OFI. OFI is what we discussed, that we are exploring all the options to crystallize and illuminate the full potential value of OFI. Olam Agri is sold. All the remaining parts of Olam Group will be progressively, gradually sold. Once that exercise is completed, we are left only with OFI.
Is the listing of OFI elsewhere still on the table?
Yes, all the options are on the table.
What would happen to Olam Group SGX then?
When the OFI listing starts, Olam Group will remain listed. The listing is still in research to be a dual listing at this point. Yeah. When we come closer to listing, all that will be much clearer. At this point in time, what we are researching and preparing for is that we will have a dual listing of OFI. Once OFI is listed, if all the assets of Olam Group are not sold as yet, that listing will continue as long as we meet all the SGX listing requirements. To remain listed in SGX, you have to have a certain market cap. You have to have a certain profit. If you meet all those conditions, then you can remain listed.
We will be selling the Remaining Olam Group assets one by one, depending on when OFI is listed or OFI has private investors or set of investors, et cetera, we will have to take stock and see where are we in the process of divesting the Remaining Olam Group assets.
Maybe I'll just add one brief comment, that there is significant value in OFI, and there is value to be extracted in the Remaining Olam Group assets. We want to do that responsibly. We want to do that deliberately. Therefore, I want to eliminate any kind of timing for listing or anything like that as a constant question. We want the business is well positioned. It has huge value, and we would like to unlock value at the best possible time in the most optimal manner. That's really the path forward.
Thanks so much. Thank you.
There's a question behind?
Hello. Yan Ling from Commonwealth Bank of Australia. This question is for Sunny. We know that SALIC's acquisition or ownership in OGA will enhance OGA 's distribution into GCC countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and that SALIC has invested a significant portion of its AUM into OGA . Obviously, very confident of its capability to hunt for food globally. My question is, what does SALIC get out of this? For instance, is there an aspiration or expectation for OGA to deliver a certain percentage to fulfill Saudi Arabia's food security? Thank you.
SALIC's first objective as a financial investor, strategic investor, is to make sure that Olam Agri is profitable and can grow profitably. SALIC's first objective is to support Olam Agri to reach its full potential. That is its first objective. The second objective is to make sure that Olam can help it achieve its food security goals. They have identified 11 commodities, which are strategic for them for food security. They import 21 million tons of these 11 commodities a year. They would hope that Olam will support them in making sure that these strategic prioritized 11 commodities, that is the Kingdom's focus, we are able to help and enable them to achieve security in those commodities. That is number two. Third, SALIC is not a Saudi company only. It is entirely 100% owned by the Saudi government or PIF, but it is a global champion in food security.
Therefore, it has invested in that regard in multiple parts of the world. They have invested in the U.S., in Brazil, in Argentina, in Canada, Russia, in Ukraine. Sorry, not in Russia, in Ukraine. Their strategy is to be a global champion in food and feed. That is their third objective. The fourth is their immediate priority beyond Saudi Arabia is the GCC region. Therefore, they want Olam to play a part in meeting the food and feed requirements in the GCC region, which, like Saudi, is also significantly food deficient. Most of the GCC countries also import a lot of their food commodities. They will expect us to play a role in meeting the food requirements, food and feed requirements of the Gulf Cooperation Council region as well. Finally, they have a lot of development interests in contributing to the development of third-world countries.
They have multiple foundations, et cetera, that gives back in developing the infrastructure and all other kinds of things in third-world countries, in developing countries. They would expect where Olam has a footprint and a presence that we will help them and their developmental agencies to implement projects and programs on the ground.
Any questions from the floor? Yes, Mayuko.
Thank you very much. This is Mayuko from Nikkei. A little bit more on OFI. I believe the plan that was announced earlier was to list in London and Singapore Exchange. Is this still the general direction, or has there been a different consideration? Why is it taking a long time? Are there any factors that are delaying? Just one more time, will Olam Group wind up in the end, or will it stay in any form? Thank you.
Let me just deal with the last question because you already replied to the same question that you had asked. First, we will sell the remaining assets and businesses of the Remaining Olam Group. When that is completed, we will potentially wind up. It is one option for us to potentially wind up that company. That depends on really the time frame, on how much time it will take us to dispose of all the remaining assets of the Remaining Olam Group. I'll hand it over to Shekhar for OFI.
On OFI, the first point I'd like to make is that we have various strategic options, amongst which there is a potential listing and a dual listing as an option. We still continue to pursue multiple options, and we have said that before, and that could be private options as well as public market options. The public markets have been quiet for quite a long time. You know after the war started in 2022, IPO markets have had brief activity, but overall have been quite benign post the 2021-2022 period. We are looking at the public market. We continue to look at it. We don't believe that the markets have been strong enough, or we don't want to therefore rush. Like I was mentioning earlier, we don't want to rush into it. The business is in very strong step. We have had some incremental infusion of equity.
We have strong support from our banking partners, and the business is growing. Therefore, there will be a right time for the value unlock in the public markets or the private markets. To your question on jurisdiction, our initial plan, which we had said, was a dual listing in Singapore and London. We are looking at alternative jurisdictions. They are likely to be other parts of Europe. That is also something that we are looking at. The markets have changed quite a bit in the last three or four years. We will take the appropriate jurisdiction, appropriate timing, but most important of all, appropriate option, private or public, and in a phased manner. We would not like to put any timing there, and we don't need to because existing investors would like to stay invested. There are no exit pressures on this business, thankfully.
We hope that we can therefore find the appropriate unlock mechanism and timing in the right jurisdiction for this business.
Just to add, for the Remaining Olam Group, we don't have any artificial deadline that we have to sell all these by three years or whatever it is. We will pursue all efforts to make sure that we get the right value for these businesses. There is no fire sale. There is no artificial deadline or timeline. We will continue to own these businesses till we find a better owner for this business. We want a better owner for this business who are good in these businesses, who have the willingness and the capacity and capability to take these businesses to full potential. If that takes two years, that's fine. If it takes three years, that's fine. We will do it very responsibly. These divestments will be done responsibly without any artificial time pressure. Yeah.
If there are no questions from the floor, I will move on to the questions that have come through online. Two questions. The first question, I would ask Muthu to answer this question. What is the management's decision on the outstanding perpetuals that are coming to maturity in July next year? The second question is, is there any plans from OFI in terms of altering the mix between working capital and fixed capital to its target level?
Okay, I'll take the first one. Historically, while the name of the instrument itself is a perpetual security, it means that there is no maturity date. The company, the issuer, can technically call on the perpetual securities anytime after the first period of reset of the interest rate. As many of you will know, the perpetual securities typically, especially in the Singapore markets, the convention is to have a five-year period, post which there is an interest rate reset, which is typically steep, relative to the initial interest rates or the coupon that is being given in the form of a dividend. A convention, there is no hard and fast rule that this has to be called at the end of the first five-year period.
Currently, we will evaluate all options, as Sunny had talked about, in terms of the completion of the tranche one of the INARA, which will release substantial cash for the Olam Group. Our stated intention is to deliver the Olam Group and substantially, if not fully, reduce its debt to become debt-free and self-sustaining. Intuitively, the proceeds will address the perpetual securities outstanding as well. All options will be open depending on when the tranche one gets completed and when the cash is being released and what will be the best use of that cash for repaying which component of the debts that will be outstanding.
We will call on the first call date.
On the mix of working capital and fixed capital for OFI, on a normal price basis, whatever that might be, we would have a roughly, for our business model, roughly a 50-50 or a 55-45 kind of ratio of fixed capital and working capital. Obviously, working capital is dependent on prices, and that could go up and down, and it has. If you look at our ratio before 2024, it would have been in that range of 55-45. Since then, working capital has been significantly higher. That's going to be a function of prices and will change accordingly.
Thank you. There's one question on dividends. Would you like to comment on the declaration of the ordinary dividend being lower than the previous year, given that the performance for this year is better than last year?
We had said that the EGM for approving the SALIC transaction, as well as in the AGM, that currently, from a cash flow standpoint, because we are continuing to invest and grow the OFI business, most of the dividends currently are being contributed from Olam Agri. Olam Agri, after this transaction has been done, any dividends that we pay will be considered as a leakage and will be adjusted for the final consideration in terms of the closing consideration that will be paid. The dividends, although we are paying $0.02 in the first half, and it is lower than the $0.03 that we paid in the first half of last year, $0.02 is still a 1.9% dividend yield for the first half. It is a respectable dividend yield.
We had also mentioned that we will pay special dividends on the disposal of all the remaining assets and businesses of the Olam Group. We have also announced the sale of the first asset or business, which is the Arai Port and Logistics business, for $175 million. When that deal is complete, we will pay the first special dividend based on the proceeds that we received, the net proceeds that we received from the sale of the port and logistics business.
There's a question on share buyback. Would you be resuming the share buyback after the results have been announced?
That is for the board to take a call. We are evaluating all of those options as we speak.
All right. That comes to the end of the questions from the online audience. Are there any residual questions that the floor would like to raise?
Thank you.