JEDDAH, 17 July 2005 — Dr. Abdul Raouf Mannaa, director general of Savola, announced that in its meeting held yesterday, the general assembly approved increasing the company’s capital from SR1.25 billion to SR1.5 billion by offering a “free share” for every five shares, thus increasing Savola’s shares from 25 million to 30 million.
Dr. Mannaa pointed out that the company is following on completing the procedures for getting the approval for the board of director’s recommendation of increasing the capital from SR1.5 billion to SR1.86 billion by floating a million shares for its shareholders at SR400 per share, which will provide the company with liquidity worth SR2.4 billion to finance its expansion projects in the Kingdom, the Middle East and North Africa in its main sectors of food oil, retail, sugar and packaging.
Dr. Mannaa also announced that the company’s board, presided over by Adel Faqeeh, approved the company’s initial financial records for the first half of 2005, which reached a net profit of SR218 million compared to SR156 million for the same period last year, an increase of 40 percent.
Sales also increased by 33 percent reaching SR3.1 billion. It has announced a first half dividend of SR6 per share.