Kellogg increases offer for Bisco Misr

Abraaj and Kellogg have been engaged in a bidding contest over Bisco Misr since last month, when Abraaj made an initial offer of 73.91 Egyptian pounds a share.

Kellogg, the world’s biggest cereal maker, has again raised its offer for Bisco Misr, the biggest listed Egyptian maker of cakes and biscuits, shortly after the private equity group Abraaj increased its bid.

The Egyptian financial supervisory authority said yesterday that it had approved Kellogg’s new offer of 89.86 Egyptian pounds a share.

Abraaj on Wednesday offered 88.09 pounds a share offer.

Kellogg’s had offered 86.36 pounds a share earlier.

Abraaj and Kellogg have been engaged in a bidding contest over Bisco Misr since last month, when Abraaj made an initial offer of 73.91 pounds a share.

Abraaj on Wednesday said its strategy “is to maximise Bisco Misr’s value by raising its local market share, expanding its business regionally, and increasing the company’s production capacity”.

Foreign companies are returning to invest in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with a population of more than 85 million, as the government enacts a raft of reforms to attract foreign investors who had left it following the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

Abraaj, which manages US$7.5 billion of assets, is the biggest private equity firm in the Middle East and North Africa.

It has invested as much as $1bn in Egypt through its funds.

Abraaj this month sold its stake in Moulin d’Or, a leading producer of baked goods in Tunisia.

It also sold a 21 per cent stake in Integrated Diagnostics, an Egyptian healthcare company, to Actis, a private equity company based in London.

Also this month, Abraaj bought a stake in Algeria’s biggest logistics company, La Flèche Bleue Algérienne, its first investment in the north African country.

Abraaj owns stakes in high-profile companies including Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries, the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia, and the Spinneys supermarket chain.

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