Rabat, July 18 - Morocco said on Tuesday it had sold off the country's state-owned tea and sugar company to local private conglomerate Holmarcom for a price of 539 million Moroccan dirhams ($61.18 million).
The government's privatisation arm Transfers Commission said Holmarcom outbid eight contenders to buy the Societe Marocaine du The et du Sucre (Moroccan Tea and Sugar Company), widely known by its French acronym Somathes.
The Commission gave no further details, including the names of the other bidders.
Earlier, government officials had said Indian Tata Tea was among 25 companies, including Chinese firms, that had expressed an interest in Somathes.
The government has set a minimum bidding price for Somathes of 440 million dirhams.
The Commission said on Tuesday Somathes had turnover of 283 million dirhams and net profit of 46 million dirhams in 2005.
Somathes is Morocco's latest privatisation in a 10-year drive that has brought over $8 billion into government coffers, of which more than 80 percent came from foreign investors.
The government plans further sell-offs to boost the role of the private sector in the economy.