National Food Products drops stake sale plan

UAE-based National Food Products has discarded its plan to sell an interest in the company.

National Food Products had caught the interest of investors such as KKR & Co and Blackstone Group.

Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying the sale proposal was dropped by the company, when bidders questioned about the value and cost of an expansion project.

For now, the firm reportedly intends to conduct the expansion plan on its own and may look at the sale process two years later.

Besides KKR & Co and Blackstone Group, Fajr Capital and Almarai have also shown interest in acquiring a stake in the National Food Products.

If the sale had gone through, the entire business may be valued at approximately $1.5bn.

In April, Almarai informed the Saudi Stock Exchange that it was invited by the National Food Products when it launched a competitive sale process to go ahead with due diligence for acquiring a controlling stake.

Almarai operates a joint venture with PepsiCo.