Saudi’s Savola Group Misses Estimates With 23% Profit Drop

Saudi food producer Savola Group , the country’s largest food products company, reported a 23 per cent drop in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, missing analyst forecasts.

Net earnings in the three months to Dec. 31 were SAR434.4 million ($115.7 million), compared with SAR564.2 million in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.

The average forecast from analysts polled by Reuters was net profit of SAR562.4 million.

In a separate statement, Savola said that it would pay a cash dividend of SAR0.5 per share for the fourth quarter, in line with the payout for same period in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data.