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M&A WATCH-
#1- Almarai fully acquires PBIC for SAR 1 bn: F&B giant Almarai is now the sole owner of water bottling firm Pure Beverages Industry Company (PBIC) for over SAR 1 bn, it said in a Tadawul disclosure on Thursday. The acquisition follows Almarai inking a share purchase agreement with PBIC’s owner Ajlan & Bros Holding Group to obtain its full stake in June.
The rationale: The acquisition plays into Almarai’s plans to grow its beverage portfolio, boost consumer offerings and maximize shareholder value as part of the firm’s growth strategy, the filing read. It also places the dairy giant among the Kingdom’s top four players in the fast-growing water bottling market alongside Nova, Safa Makkah Water and Aquafina.
#2- Ataa sells training academy to Qiyam: Ataa Educational Company, via its subsidiary Arabian Education and Training Group Holding Company, inked an agreement to sell its Al-Faisal International Academy for Training branch to Qiyam Real Estate Company for SAR 40 mn, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul.
Use of proceeds: Funds from the sale will be used to enhance the Ataa Educational’s financial position and operational liquidity as part of its strategy to divest from the training sector and focus on its core education business.
STARTUP WATCH-
Saudi-backed D-GN secures funding: Decentralized data-labeling platform Data GuardiansNetwork (D-GN) raised USD 5 mn in a pre-seed round backed by Hamoud Al Rumayan (LinkedIn), droppGroup and Hub Culture, the company said in a post on LinkedIn.
Use of proceeds: The funding will help D-GN expand its global operations, grow its contributor base, and build out its multimodal data pipelines, Jawlah reports. The company also aims to integrate more closely with AI firms that rely on ethically sourced, high-quality training data.
About D-GN: The platform provides AI companies with training data generated by contributors from around the world. Workers perform tasks like image classification or voice annotation and receive rewards in USDT.
FINANCIAL SERVICES-
HamahCapital is now licensed to give advising consultancy in the securities business, following the completion of business requirements commencements, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement on Thursday.
LOGISTICS-
The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) added Goodrich’s RSX1shipping service to Jeddah Islamic Port, linking it to three regional ports, it said in a statement. The new service — with a capacity of 720 TEUs — will connect Jeddah with Port Sudan, Djibouti Port in Djibouti, and Jebel Ali Port in the UAE.
