Saudi stake in Iran firm under scrutiny
A Saudi food producer’s domination of the Iranian market for a basic staple is raising hackles in the Persian country, forcing the company’s local partners to deny rumors that it was linked to ISIL terrorists.
Savola Group, Saudi Arabia's largest food producer, has a controlling 80% stake in Behshahr Industrial Company which accounts for 40% of the country’s edible oil market.
On Monday, the popular Iranian website Tabnak published what it called the “latest documents about the dominance of Saudi Sheikh Mamoun Faleh Saeed al-Dawood and his friends on the Iranian cooking oil market”.
Tabnak touched on recent deterioration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, saying if Savola “fails to supply the Iranian market for political reasons or protecting its country’s interests …we will face a deadend for this staple”.
The Saudi government is reportedly the second-largest single shareholder in Savola through a 10% stake held by a social-insurance board.
Savola acquired a holding of 49% in Iran’s Behshahr Industrial Company in 2004 before raising the stake to 80%.
The Saudi group, which also operates in Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Turkey, Morocco, Jordan and Kazakhstan, generates more than 15% of its revenues from business in Iran.
Rebranded as Savola Behshahr, the firm's revenues from Iran increased by almost a third to $1.17 billion in 2012, about 42% of its global edible oil sales.
On Sunday, CEO of Beshahr Industrial Company Morteza Dadash criticized media “aggrandizing of Saudi investors’ role in Iran’s cooking oil industry”.
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