Crewstone International Sdn Bhd, a licensed and regulated private equity and private credit manager, today announced the completion of a structured financing transaction with Evergreen Vanilla Sdn Bhd, marking another capital deployment under Crewstone’s segment-focused growth investment strategy.
Agriculture remains a resilient pillar of Malaysia’s economy, rebounding to 5.1% growth in Q4 2025 from marginal growth of 0.4% in the preceding quarter. As the country works to reduce a RM 78.8 billion food import bill under the National Agrofood Policy 2.0, private investment in high-value segments like natural vanilla which valued at USD 32.7 billion locally in 2024 and projected to grow at a 5.4% CAGR through 2032 and is increasingly vital for national food security and export competitiveness.
The partnership reflects Crewstone International’s disciplined approach to deploying capital into asset-backed operating platforms with clear execution pathways.
The success of this transaction underscores Crewstone’s ability to structure and deploy capital into real-economy operating businesses anchored by land, crop-bearing assets, and repeatable production cycles, where output is built over time and demand remains resilient even through economic downturns. This deployment extends Crewstone’s expertise beyond real estate and financial services into another real-economy vertical, while maintaining the same structure-first discipline.
Evergreen operates one of Malaysia’s largest vanilla cultivation platforms, spanning approximately 350 acres in Lojing, Kelantan, and is building an integrated operation across cultivation, processing, and export-oriented supply. With the planned operational enhancements, the platform is expected to increase yield efficiency by 35.2%, support margin expansion through downstream processing, and expand customer capacity by more than five times as it scales into international food, fragrance, and pharmaceutical end-markets.
The structured financing will support Evergreen’s next phase of operational build-out, including infrastructure development and production optimisation, as the company progresses from cultivation into scaled commercial operations. The investment also supports local economic activity by expanding plantation and processing operations and increasing demand across supporting services such as logistics, maintenance, and local procurement as the project moves into steady-state production.
“This transaction reflects how we work with operating businesses where capital needs to be structured around assets, capacity build-out, and measured scale,” said Izmir Mujab, Managing Director and CEO of Crewstone International. “We focus on structure, execution readiness, and alignment. The sector is secondary. What matters is whether the business can scale responsibly with the right capital framework in place.”
“Crewstone’s underwriting process is rigorous and detail-driven, and that discipline carries through beyond deployment,” said Jason Teo Giin Liang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Evergreen Vanilla. “Working with a partner that is structured, commercially demanding, and closely engaged has sharpened our internal decision-making and kept us focused on building the business the right way as we scale into international markets.”
