Almarai, Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company by market value, said on Wednesday it had finalized an agreement to buy 75 percent of a Jordanian beverage firm, its first foreign acquisition. Almarai will use its own cash to finance the purchase of the stake in Taibah's Investment and Advanced Food Co, a dairy and juice manufacturer valued at SR474 million ($126.4 million) debt excluded, Almarai said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website. “This is Almarai's first takeover outside Saudi Arabia,” it added. Taibah's founders will keep the remaining 25 percent stake. Regulatory requirements for the transaction are expected to be completed next month, Almarai said. The Saudi firm also plans to buy Egypt's International Company for Agricultural Industrialization Projects (Beeaty), a deal that could cost it about $112 million, Al-Madinah newspaper quoted unnamed Beeaty sources as saying in August. Almarai, which has been diversifying its revenues through acquisitions, has earmarked SR6 billion riyals for investments up to 2013 to expand its business outside of the Gulf Arab region. Meanwhile, Saudi government is considering to relaunch its Landbridge Railway project amid the recent declines in project cost, Dow Jones reported. The paper reports citing a person familiar with the matter this move would lead to a reduction in the cost of the project, earlier estimated at SR 25 billion.
