Savola Group has signed an agreement to buy a 78 percent stake in two Egyptian firms for 557 million Egyptian pounds ($98 million) as it expands its regional footprint in food products, it said Tuesday The acquisition of the stakes in Egypt's Al-Malika and Al-Farasha firms will be self-financed, Savola said in a statement posted on the website of the Saudi bourse. “These two companies are engaged in the field of manufacturing and marketing pasta inside and outside Egypt and have two factories in Egypt with production capacity of 120,000 tons per annum, with a market share of 30 percent,” it said. Savola, which owns the Middle East's biggest sugar refining business, posted a SR307.9 million third-quarter net profit Monday, beating forecasts, and it maintained profit forecast of SR1 billion for the year, before capital gains. Savola is the biggest shareholder in Almarai Co., the Middle East's largest dairy firm by market value, owning 29.9 percent.
