Riyadh, Jan 19 - Saudi Arabia's Almarai Co , the Gulf's largest dairy firm by market value, posted a 13.5 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on higher sales as it expands its distribution network.
Almarai made 219.2 million riyals ($58.45 million) in the three months to Dec. 31 up against the 193 million riyals it made a year-earlier, the firm said in a statement posted on the bourse's website.
"The 2008 performance can be attributed to ... execution across all aspects of the business, particularly the expansion of our distribution network," the firm said.
Net profit in the fourth-quarter was however 25.4 percent below its level in the third-quarter of 2008 in what the company attributed to "shifts in the seasonality of consumer consumption".
Analysts forecast of Almarai's fourth quarter earnings ranged from 215.1 million riyals to 224 million riyals, according to a Reuters survey last month.
Earnings per share for 2008 were 8.35 riyals compared to 6.12 riyals for 2007, it said.
For the 12 months to Dec. 31, Almarai's net profit rose 36.4 percent to 910.3 million riyals.
Almarai has been diversifying its revenue sources through acquisitions and said it plans to spend 6 billion riyals in the five years to 2013.
The firm announced in the third quarter two acquisitions of juice and dairy manufacturers in Egypt and Jordan.
Last year, Almarai began consolidating the earnings of the acquisition of Western Bakeries and International Bakery Services Co in 2006. It paid 709 million riyals in stock for the companies.
The dairy firm is a shareholder in Zain Saudi Arabia , a consortium that paid $6.1 billion in 2007 for a licence to start Saudi Arabia's third mobile telephone network.