Almarai Co. Ltd., the largest dairy company in the Gulf Arab region by market value, agreed to buy International Company for Agricultural Industrialization Projects (Beeaty), an Egyptian dairy and juice products producer. The acquisition of Beyti is part of a long-term strategy to expand outside of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Almarai said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Saturday. Beeaty is Arabic for “my environment.” Almarai has been diversifying its revenue sources through acquisitions, saying in July it would boost its investment budget to SR6 billion for the five years to 2013. The company has allocated earlier a budget of SR4.7 billion for the five years until the end of 2011. Almarai's second-quarter profit jumped 42.3 percent rise on higher sales after it expanded its business regionally. In 2006, Almarai agreed to buy Western Bakeries and International Bakery Services Co. The firm is also part of a group led by Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co setting up Saudi Arabia's third mobile phone firm, Zain Saudi Arabia.
