KUALA LUMPUR: Agricultural commodities trader Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) has announced it will make a cornerstone investment in the initial public offering (IPO) of poultry and egg company Leong Hup International Bhd on Bursa Malaysia.
"LDC's cornerstone investment in LHI's IPO is in line with our strategy to diversify further downstream and strengthen our footprint in growth markets by partnering with key players in the feed, food and nutrition value chain," Louis Dreyfus Group chief executive Ian McIntosh said in a statement, today.
Leong Hup is majority-owned by the family of Tan Sri Francis Lau Tuang Nguang, dubbed by the press as Malaysia's "Chicken King" for controlling a large share of the local poultry market.
Leong Hup, which is set to list on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange on May 16, 2019, seeks to raise as much as RM1.2 billion. This IPO is seen to be the biggest on Bursa Malaysia since Lotte Chemical Titan debut in July 2017.
Leong Hup is backed by prominent Asian private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, which currently own stakes in Burger King Korea and China's Beijing Leader & Harvest Electric Technologies Co Ltd.
Leong Hup’s IPO has garnered keen interests from billionaire Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan, Employees Provident Fund, the AIA Group, Maybank Asset Management, RHB Asset Management and prominent investor Chua Ma Yu.
Louis Dreyfus is one of the world's biggest traders of animal feed, rice, oilseeds, sugar and coffee and employs about 17,000 people worldwide. It is also a familiar investor in Malaysia's agriculture industry.
Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the agricultural powerhouse's controlling shareholder, flew in to Kuala Lumpur seven years ago to seal the deal to be a cornerstone investor in the Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGVH) IPO.
In the months leading up to the RM10.5 billion IPO slated for June 2012, officials at FGVH, the commercial arm of Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), had invited Louis Dreyfus to take a 4.9 per cent stake in the company as a strategic investor.
When FGVH debut on Bursa Malaysia on June 28, 2012, it turned out Louis Dreyfus' investment amounted to 0.5 per cent of FGVH's initial public offering.