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Saudi Almarai to buy Egyptian food company
Saudi Arabia's Almarai, the largest dairy company in the Gulf by market value, said on Saturday it has signed an initial agreement to buy an Egyptian dairy and juice manufacturer.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:51 August 16, 2008
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's Almarai, the largest dairy company in the Gulf by market value, said on Saturday it has signed an initial agreement to buy an Egyptian dairy and juice manufacturer.
Almarai will sign the fin-al deal to buy International Company for Agricultural Industrialisation Projects (Beeaty) once it completes financial, technical and legal audits, the Saudi firm said in a statement on the bourse website.
Beeaty is Arabic for "my environment".
If completed, the acquisition would be Almarai's first in Egypt, the Arab world's most-populous country - and home to twice as many people as the Gulf, where Almarai's business is currently focused.
Almarai has been diversifying its revenue sources through acquisitions, saying in July it would boost its investment budget to 6 billion riyals ($1.60 billion) for the five years to 2013.
A previous budget of 4.7 billion riyals had been set for the five years to the end of 2011.
Almarai's second-quarter profit jumped 42.3 per cent rise on higher sales after it expanded its business regionally.
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