Olam invests $202m in Nigerian agribusiness

ABUJA• • Olam International has invested US$150 million (S$201.9 million) in animal-feed mills and poultry farms in Nigeria as it seeks to boost its agribusiness venture in Africa's biggest food market by population.

These include bird- and fish-feed mills, and a hatchery to produce 1.6 million day-old chicks weekly, the global food trader said in a statement released on Tuesday in Kaduna.

Feeds produced are estimated to support the production of eight billion eggs and 100 million kilos of poultry a year, Olam said.

Olam, which started operations in Nigeria in 1989 with purchases of cashew nuts, cocoa and shea nuts, is now one of the world's largest food traders with a presence in 70 countries.

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Japan's No. 1 bank picks Amsterdam as EU base

TOKYO• • Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan's biggest bank, has chosen Amsterdam as a base for its investment-banking business in the European Union after the United Kingdom leaves the bloc.

Its securities unit has decided to apply for a licence to establish a subsidiary in the Dutch city, it said in a statement issued yesterday.

Global banks are preparing to set up or expand offices in the EU to maintain access to the market before Britain formally leaves the union in 2019.

The new Amsterdam unit will ensure that MUFG can continue to provide securities services to its EU clients even if its London business loses the "passporting" rights that allow it to operate across borders, it said in the statement.

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