Saudi Arabian bottled-water business Berain Water has a new investor.
Hassana Investment Company has acquired a 40% stake in Berain from local investment group Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi & Sons Investment Company, also known as Rajhi-Invest.
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Financial terms were not disclosed. Hassana Investment Company is the investment manager of Saudi Arabia’s General Organization for Social Insurance, the government agency concerned with social insurance in the country.
According to a statement hosted on regional business news service Zawya, Berain has three factories located in Jeddah and Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. Berain sells packaged-water products in a range of sizes.
In the statement, Ahmed W. Alqahtani, the CIO of regional markets at Hassana, was quoted as saying: “This transaction is aligned with Hassana’s long-term investment strategy to acquire well-performing businesses in the consumer sector with a stable and attractive cashflow profile underpinned by strong market fundamentals. We are pleased to partner with Rajhi Invest and we look forward to building a long-term partnership based on mutual benefit.”
Rajhi-Invest group CEO Mohamed A. El Samman said the “strategic partnership” with Hassana was “a decisive step towards realising our vision for Berain”.
He added: “We are looking forward to this partnership and anticipate a powerful synergy that will drive transformative growth for Berain across the Saudi FMCG landscape.”
SNB Capital advised Rajhi-Invest on the deal. Zaid Ghoul, MD and head of investment banking at SNB Capital, confirmed the deal via a post on LinkedIn.
Linklaters worked with Hassana Investment Company on the transaction.
In a statement, Linklaters said the deal “marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between Rajhi-Invest and Hassana”.
According to GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent, the size of Saudi Arabia’s packaged water market in volume terms was 3.88bn litres last year. The data and analytics group forecasts growth of 3.9% this year to 4.03bn litres.
