The capital will be increased through the distribution of bonus shares, offering one share for each outstanding stock. This will increase the company’s stock from 115 million to 230 million.
The company said it would try to get official approval for the capital increase and complete executive procedures to implement the advice of the board of directors.
Almarai shares, meanwhile, rose as much as 8.1 percent on Tuesday after the company reported a 17 percent rise in third-quarter net profit and unveiled plans for a bonus capital increase.
The stock was up 6.5 percent by 0831 GMT, giving up some of its earlier gains, while the overall benchmark was down 0.4 percent.
Almarai made SR424.5 million ($113 million) in the third quarter compared with SR363.4 million a year earlier, the company said.
The company said it made a net profit of more than SR1 billion during the last nine months, compared to SR847.9 billion during the same period in 2009, registering an increase of 18.1 percent.
Almarai’s total sales in the third quarter reached SR1.83 billion, which is 18.5 percent more than the sales (SR1.55 billion) of the same period in 2009. Sales in the last nine months were SR5.13 billion, up 18.8 percent from last year’s SR4.32 billion.
“The results show the success of the company’s expansion plans, its diversification of revenue sources and its efforts to improve customer services,” the company said.
