Tunisian tycoon Abdelwaheb Ben Ayed has lost over $2.8 million from stake in Poulina Group

Omokolade Ajayi -

Abdelwaheb Ben Ayed, a multimillionaire Tunisian businessman, has seen the market value of his stake in Tunisian holding company Poulina Group fall by TND8.6 million ($2.8 million) since the start of 2022, as investors booked profit after shares surged to record levels shortly after the year began.

Poulina Group is a Tunisian conglomerate with interests and operations in real estate, public works and infrastructure, wood and home appliances and mass consumer products.

Ben Ayed, who was instrumental in the expansion of Poulina Group, owns a beneficial 3.4-percent stake in the conglomerate.

Shares in the Tunisian holding company were worth TND10 ($3.26) per share as of press time on May 3, up 2.99 percent from their opening price on Fri. April 29.

Poulina’s stock price has fallen from TND11.4 ($3.72) on Jan. 1 to TND10 ($3.26) on May 3, resulting in a total 12.3-percent loss for shareholders as investors on the Tunis Stock Exchange book profit after shares surged to record levels earlier this year.

As a result of the double-digit percent decline in the stock price of Poulina Group, the market value of Ben Ayed’s 3.4-percent stake has fallen from TND70 million ($22.8 million) at the start of the year to TND61.2 million ($20 million) at the time of writing.

This amounts to a total loss of TND8.6 million ($2.8 million) for the Tunisian multimillionaire since the year began.

Poulina Group is off to a great start in 2022 after a solid performance in the first quarter of 2022, following an impressive performance in 2021 in which revenue soared by 22 percent beyond the TND3-billion ($1.1 billion) mark.

The group’s consolidated revenue increased by 16 percent in the first three months of 2022, from TND788 million ($261.7 million) in 2021 to TND916.6 million ($304.4 million).

The increase in revenue was driven by strong growth in both local and export sales, as well as an impressive performance across all of its business lines, with the exception of retail, which fell by four percent due to a decrease in its home market of Tunisia.