Saudi food group Savola has sold its 21% stake in the Saudi National Glass Industries Company (Zoujaj), for a capital gain of SAR 30 million (USD 8.0 million/EUR 6.6 million), the company said on 24 A…
Saudi food group Savola has sold its 21% stake in the Saudi National Glass Industries Company (Zoujaj), for a capital gain of SAR 30 million (USD 8.0 million/EUR 6.6 million), the company said on 24 August 2004. Saudi investors and analysts had expected that Savola would merge Zoujaj into the Saudi Arabian Glass Company (SAGCO), in which Savola has a 51% stake worth SAR 149.7 million (USD 39.9 million/EUR 33.1 million). However, Savola decided to sell the stake in line with the strategy to focus on its core businesses, the company said. Savola bought the stake in Zoujaj in mid-2004. Zoujaj, established as a joint-stock company in 1990, has a paid-up capital of SAR 200 million (USD 53.3 million/EUR 44.1 million). The company has two factories in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia, and in the capital Riyadh, and exports its products to Pakistan, Algeria, the Gulf countries, Malta, Malaysia, Sudan and Lebanon. Zoujaj reported a surge in net profit to SAR 23.1 million (USD 6.2 million/EUR 5.1 million) for the 1H of 2004 from SAR 14.2 million (USD 3.8 million/EUR 3.1 million) in the same period of 2003. Savola posted a net profit of SAR 156 million (USD 41.6 million/EUR 34.5 million) for the 1H of 2004, up from SAR 123 million (USD 32.8 million/EUR 27.2 million) in the same period of 2003.