JEDDAH: Savola Group, Saudi Arabia’s largest food products company, reported a 47 percent fall in third-quarter net profit, partly because of a one-off gain in the year earlier quarter.

The company’s board also approved a third-quarter cash divided of SR0.50 per share, equivalent to SR267.0 million, a separate statement said.

This compares with a divided of SR0.75 per share in the year-ago period.

Net earnings in the three months to Sept. 30 were SR371.6 million ($99.1 million) compared with SR701.4 million in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.

Four analysts had forecast on average Savola would make a quarterly net profit of SR410.7 million, while the company’s forecast for the quarter, released in July, was SR355 million.

The company attributed the drop in net income for the third quarter to the gain from the sale in the same period of last year of its stake in Masharef Real Estate Project, a Jeddah-based scheme, for SR187.5 million.

It also said profits were down because of the sale in the first quarter of this year of its packaging unit.

The company, a producer of cooking oil, sugar and other foodstuffs, warned in July its earnings for the rest of the year would be hit by difficult economic conditions in the countries where it operated, oversupply in commodities and competition in its home market.

But in Monday’s statement, Savola said it was confident of achieving its previously announced revised profit forecast of SR1.63 billion for the full year.