Saudi contractor buys French LPG engineer

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Al Ayuni Investment & Contracting Co - a Riyadh-based family-owned construction company - has bought a majority stake in French engineering company Siraga.

The deal is effectively a rescue of Siraga, which has developed a niche building large-scale LPG containers. It also maufactures and fills LPG cylinders and operates from seven countries including France, Belgium, Brazil, Malaysia and India.

Al Ayuni pay $655,550 EUR: 500,000) for a 73.84% stake, which equates to $1.15 (EUR: 0.88) per share.

The company's shares were suspended from the Paris Alternext bourse in November, when they were trading at $13.31 (EUR: 10.15).

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However, when announcing the takeover the company said that its turnover in the first half of its 2012/13 year to September 30 dropped 29% to $17.3m, causing it to declare a net loss of almost $5m.

Al Ayuni has also agreed to provide a one-year revolving loan of $2.6m (EUR: 2m), which Siraga would would help to sustain the business.

Benoit Collomb, Siraga's chairman who sold the stake acquired by Al Ayuni, has resigned from the board alongside a number of existing directors, while general manager Eric Batise has been promoted to CEO.

Al Ayuni Group was founded in 1960 and began life as a specialist in road building, but it has since diversified into several other businesses including property development, education, plant & equipment hire and investments in power and water.

The company has a turnover of over $390m.
The statement issued by Siraga said its purchase was "part of a strategy of business and geographic diversification".