Agthia acquires vegetable firm
Emirates Foodstuff and Mineral Water Company (Agthia) has announced the acquisition of the Al Ain Vegetable Processing and Canning Factory, a leading tomato paste and frozen vegetable producer with its plant based Al Ain.
The company distributes its products in the UAE and throughout the Middle East.
Agthia currently controls Al Ain Mineral Water Company, Grand Mills for Flour and Animal Feed Company and Ice Crystal Water and is also the exclusive distributor for Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee. The Al Ain Vegetable Processing and Canning Factory will be added to Agthia’s portfolio as a standalone division.
IQ’s profit surges
Industries Qatar (IQ), the country’s biggest firm by market value, made QR1.58 billion ($434.2 million) in the fourth quarter, up 50.5 per cent from the year-earlier period.
The Qatari holding firm, with businesses ranging from chemicals to steel, posted profit of QR4.98 billion in 2007 compared with QR3.62 billion in 2006, it said in a statement on the bourse website, without giving quarterly data.
Reuters calculated the fourth quarter based on earlier financial statements.
The state-controlled firm proposed a 40 per cent cash dividend and 10 per cent in bonus shares. Dlala Brokerage & Investment Holding had forecast IQ’s quarterly profit would drop 17.6 per cent to QR865.73 million, in a Reuters survey last December.
Tata venture in Oman
Tata Steel, the world’s sixth-largest steel maker, will invest up to $150 million over three years to develop a 10-million-tonne limestone mine in Oman.
It said it signed a joint-venture agreement with Oman’s Al Bahja Group to develop limestone deposits in Salalah in the south of the sultanate. Limestone mined in Oman will be used in the company’s plants in India as well as at Corus plants abroad, managing director B Muthuraman said.
“The project will help us get quality limestone as well as save costs,” he said without elaborating. Tata Steel purchased Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group for $13 billion in 2007.
The project will be executed by Al Rimal Mining, in which Tata Steel will hold a 70 per cent stake.
