RIYADH: Saudi-based Savola Group, the Middle East’s largest sugar refinery, said on Saturday it would not bid for six sugar mills being sold by the Turkish government as previously planned.
Savola said on Oct. 13 it had set up a joint venture with farmers’ union Turkey Tarim Kredi and the local Nesma Holding Company to prepare a bid.
But Savola said now it would not enter the auctions, citing a lack of time to study the offered assets, according to a statement on the Saudi bourse website on Saturday.
“Savola Group will continue to study other investment opportunities offered by the Turkish government in this area in the future,” it said.
Savola has a total sugar refining capacity of 2 million tons per year which places it ahead of its closest regional competitor, the United Arab Emirates-based Al-Khaleej Sugar Co. which has a refining capacity of some 1.1 million tons per year.
Savola Foods, the firm’s food unit, has a 750,000 tons per annum sugar refinery in Egypt and owns a 1.2 million tons per year sugar refinery in the Saudi city of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.
Savola Foods is the world’s largest manufacturer of branded cooking oil. In 2007, Savola bought Turkish edible oils firm Yudum Food from National Bank of Kuwait’s investment banking unit for SR200 million.