Egyptian tycoon Hani Berzi’s Edita Food Industries moves to acquire Egyptian Belgian Company

Egypt-based consumer goods group Edita Food Industries has announced the signing of a non-binding letter of intent to acquire the assets owned by Egyptian Belgian Company for Industrial Investments S.A.E.

The deal comes nearly five months after it announced the acquisition of a EGP135-million ($8.6 million) bakery production line, which will be operational by February 2022.

Edita Food Industries is a leader in the growing Egyptian packaged snack foods market. The Berzi family and Exoder Limited established the group in 1996 to create an industrial giant in the fast-moving consumer goods segment.

Hani Berzi, the chairman and managing director, holds a substantial 41.95-percent stake in the leading packaged foods manufacturer through Quantum Invest BV.

The planned acquisition will create an industry leader that will take over the subsidiaries and assets of Egyptian Belgian Company.

Some of these assets include real estate such as land and buildings, as well as machinery, equipment and production lines.

In addition, the Egyptian group will take over brands such as “Ole,” a croissant, cake and doughnut manufacturer.

Before executing the deal, Edita will commence legal, technical, financial and tax due-diligence investigations of the assets to be acquired on or before Jan. 15, 2022.

The Egypt-based consumer packaged goods group is expected to finalize the due diligence exercise on or before Dec. 15 to make way for other arrangements and the necessary agreement to fast-track the acquisition.

As of press time, Nov. 24, shares in Edita were trading at $2.2 per share on the London Stock Exchange, unchanged from their opening price this morning, as buying and selling pressure from the bulls and the bears were evenly balanced.

In the first nine months of 2021, the Egypt-based consumer packaged goods group posted a 33-percent surge in revenue from EGP2.79 billion ($177.6 million) in the first nine months of 2020 (9M 2020) to EGP3.71 billion ($236.1 million) in the corresponding period of 2021.

The strong top-line growth led Edita to report a 58-percent increase in profit from EGP175 million ($11.14 million) in 2020 to EGP276.2 million ($17.6 million) in 2021.