Savola Group acquires Bayara Holding for $260 million

Savola Group, a strategic investment holding company with focus on the food and retail sectors has announced the completion of the acquisition of Bayara Holding Limited (“Bayara”) by Savola Foods Company (“Savola Foods”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Savola Group.

With nearly three decades of operations, Bayara is a leading packaged foods company based in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) offering a wide range of nuts, spices, dried fruits, pulses and snacks with a distribution network spanning across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and more than thirty other countries across the Middle East and Africa.

Savola Foods acquired 100% of Bayara for USD 260 million in cash (approximately SAR 975 million). The acquisition is pivotal to Savola’s growth strategy focused on expansion into high growth, value-added food categories with propositions directed towards younger population.

Bayara brings well-established sourcing and go-to-market capabilities together with strong potential for synergies with Savola Foods. Its business is driven by the prevailing trend towards achieving a healthy lifestyle and a growing younger population.

Bayara recorded net sales of approximately SAR 420 million for the twelve-month period ending in March 2021 with a healthy mid-teens EBITDA margin.

 “the acquisition of Bayara represents a strategic addition to Savola Group, and a demonstration of our commitment to continue growing Savola’s portfolio with future focused businesses. It reinforces our overarching focus on growth and delivering long-term value creation for our shareholders,” said Waleed Fatani, Savola Group CEO.

“the acquisition of Bayara comes within the strategy framework of Savola Foods, which aims to diversify our business through focused expansions, primarily benefiting from the increased spending on healthy food trends. We are seeking to introduce and drive this new business under Savola Foods through regional expansion while strengthening and consolidating our base in the UAE,”  said Sameh Hassan, CEO of Savola Foods.

“We are excited that Bayara will be joining the Savola Foods team. Bayara has achieved remarkable success over the past thirty years, and we look forward to building on this strong foundation to continue this momentum through this next stage” said Jean Marc Lourau, CEO of Bayara.

Eversheds Sutherland acted as legal advisor to Savola Foods and EY was retained for financial advisory and finance & tax diligence. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted as legal advisor to Levant Capital and Spicemen.