Ingredion considering offers for a sale of Rafhan Maize majority stake

Chicago‑based Ingredion Inc. has begun entertaining non‑binding offers for the 71% shareholding it holds in Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd. (RMPL), its long‑standing Pakistani subsidiary listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), in a notice sent to shareholders this past week. Management is now weighing whether to open a formal auction or negotiate privately. Ingredion and Rafhan Maize have made no public filings so far, but the company’s 71% ownership is disclosed in its own investor material.

Rafhan Maize grinds more than 400,000 tons of corn a year to produce industrial starches, liquid glucose, dextrose, dextrins and gluten meals that feed Pakistan’s food, textile, paper and pharmaceutical sectors. Although RMPL itself is an industrial ingredients business, the Rafhan name evokes warm, very consumer‑facing memories: Rafhan Custard, cornflour, jelly and pudding powders—household staples that generations of Pakistanis grew up on. Those packaged dessert lines were created by CPC/Ingredion decades ago but were sold to Unilever in 1998; the licensing link means the custard tins found in every pantry still carry the Rafhan name and sustain enormous brand equity for the industrial company that shares it.