Saudi's Savola buys two Egyptian companies

Saudi Arabia's 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 on TuesdayThe 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 307.9 million riyal third-quarter net profit on Monday, beating forecasts, and it maintained profit forecast of 1 billion riyals 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.