Qalaa Holdings subsidiary Gozour for agriculture and consumer foods announced on Tuesday it has sold its business in Sudan for $4.3m. In a statement, Qalaa said the signed sale and purchase agreement has been made to sell its two Halawa and Biscuits plants in Sudan to a Sudanese investor at a value of $4.3m. Gozour has also signed a sale and purchase agreement for Misr October for Food Industries (El-Misrieen), an Egyptian manufacturer of cheese products, to a domestic industrial investor at an enterprise value of EGP 50m. The acquirer will assume all debt, liabilities and obligations of El-Misrieen, including bank debt of EGP 16.5m. El-Misrieen had ceased operations in 2012. "Qalaa Holdings continues to divest non-core investments across its footprint as it focuses on core business units including Egyptian Refining Company, a $3.7bn megaproject that is nearing the 75% completion mark and is on track to begin production in 2017," Qalaa said in a statement. Qalaa Holding's strategy in 2015 aims to reduce debts by exiting a number of companies, such as El-Rashidi El-Mizan, and increasing its investments in major subsidiaries. Qalaa Holding, one of the largest investment companies in Egypt, manages assets worth $9.5bn, among which are dozens of companies existing mainly in Egypt and in East and North Africa. Qalaa Holding reported EGP 84.7m in net losses during the second quarter (Q2) of 2015, an improvement upon last year's reported losses of EGP 188.3m. On a six-month basis, the bottom-line posted a loss of EGP 196.9m, a 53% improvement compared to the first half of 2014, which reported losses of EGP 420.2m. The company reported revenues of EGP 2.08bn for Q2 of 2015, increasing by 33.7% in comparison with the same period last year.
