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Savola Group

Savola Group Overview

The Savola Group is one of the leading industrial companies in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region, founded in 1979 and listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in 1992.

Savola operates in two main sectors: food and retail.

Its food operations include edible oils, sugar, spices, pulses, pasta, frozen foods and seafood.

Its retail sector operates the Panda Retail Company, one of the Middle East’s largest grocery retail chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets, with more than 200 outlets.

Savola also runs a major restaurant division focusing mainly on fast-food. It holds a 49 percent stake in Herfy Food Services Company, which operates around 350 branches in Saudi Arabia.

Its largest shareholders include Assila Investments, Abdulkadir Al-Muhaidib & Sons and Mohammed Abdullah Al Rabiah & Partners.

Savola Group News

A man shops in a Lulu supermarket in Muscat, Oman. The company has an annual revenue of $8 billion

Supermarket major Lulu officially announces IPO

UAE supermarket major Lulu is to list a 25 percent stake on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). Over 2.5 billion shares of Lulu Retail Holdings, which is among the largest hypermarket chain operators in the Middle East, will be made available with a nominal value of $0.014.  “With GCC retail presenting a $100 billion […]

Herfy operates 385 branches in Saudi Arabia and also has a presence in Kuwait, Bangladesh and Nigeria

Shareholder disputes worsen Saudi fast-food chain Herfy’s woes

As its profits and share price plunge, Saudi Arabia’s leading fast-food chain Herfy has become embroiled in disputes with its two biggest shareholders. Founded in 1981 by Ahmed Al-Said after he returned from studying in the United States, Herfy operates about 385 restaurants across the kingdom, plus bakeries and meat processing factories. It also has […]

Saudi stock lending. Short selling relies on stock prices falling for the seller to make a profit, but the lender makes money from fees regardless

Saudi Arabia leads in stock lending as short selling grows

Saudi Arabia is the Middle East’s most active market for stock lending – an important part of the process of short selling – and demand from borrowers is likely to increase as more sophisticated investors start trading, new research suggests. In stock lending, an entity – usually a broker or financial institution – pays a […]

Saudi agtech startup Red Sea Farms raises $18.5m

Saudi Arabian agriculture technology startup Red Sea Farms has raised an additional $18.5 million to help expand its fresh produce line, and also to sell its technology to users in harsh, water scarce environments.  The funding was raised from Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed, The Savola Group, KAUST Innovation Fund and OlsonUbben, the company said.  Red Sea […]