Raya Holding for Financial Investments announced on Tuesday the signing of a preliminary contract to fully acquire the International Union for Integrated Food Industries (LAZAH), according to a report sent by the company to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX). "The contract was signed with an initial value of EGP 80m," the report said. The final results of the due diligence currently undertaken by the company will determine the final value of the acquisition. The final contract would be signed afterwards, when all the conditions in the preliminary contract are met. The chief financial officer of Raya, Samer El Waziri, said the company will be announcing more details of the acquisition in the near future. "We are looking into further investments in the food industries sector. Everything is currently under study and we are waiting for the right opportunity to present our plans to our board of directors in order to obtain approvals for potential expansions," he added. Raya has previously announced their intention to investments an estimated EGP 150m into the acquisition of a food industry factory. In October the company announced that its board of directors had agreed to begin negotiations to acquire a company working in the local market and with exports, without revealing the company's name. In July, Raya was in talks to buy 20% of the Polish food manufacturer Makarony Polsike, according to Raya chairperson Medhat Khalil. Raya planned to build a food factory on a 100,000 sqm plot of land in Ain Sokhna if the transaction was successful, Khalil had said.
