Billionaire al-Amoudi’s co. Investing $41m in 3 Ethiopian Farms

By William Davison

April 5 (Bloomberg) — Farms were bought from govt for 1.1b birr ($59.4m), General Manager of Horizon Plantations Ethiopia Jemal Ahmed tells reporters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

• Farms are Upper Awash Agro Industry Enterprise, Gojeb Agricultural Development Enterprise and Coffee Processing and Warehouse Enterprise: Jemal
• 400m birr to be invested over 2 yrs to double production to 50,000 mt in Upper Awash, country’s largest orange grower
• NOTE: Ethiopian-born Saudi citizen Mohammed al-Amoudi is majority owner of Horizon Plantations Ethiopia through his Midroc Ethiopia Group
• Al-Amoudi is single largest investor in Ethiopia and his current net worth is estimated at $10.4b, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

MIDROC Ethiopia bought the three businesses for 1,123 million birr; of which “Yelayignaw Awash Agro-Industry” takes 860 million birr. Now HORIZON Plantations PLC, a MIDROC sister company, is to invest 432 million birr on this firm to double production and increase its profits through export earnings.

The Alamoudi company paid over 35 million birr to transfer the ownership of “Gojub Irsha Limat” to MIDROC Ethiopia. This farm is set to be transformed, through state-of-the-art tools, into 500 hectare modern banana production firm with US$ 15 million Dollar. The intention is to turn this agricultural firm into globally competitive business like banana firms in India, Philippines and Ecuador.

Estimates show yearly export earnings from the banana firm would be over US$ 20 million once the firm gets modernized. HORIZON Plantations PLC reportedly brought renowned scientists in the field from Europe and South America to run survey studies on the farms; and the results of the laboratory tests reveal the projects are potentially viable.

HORIZON is also engaged in coffee production that it sets to make as modern and productive as possible. Here the firm intends to invest 80 million birr including a technology that changes the remains of coffee into compressed briket wood fire.

Almoudi, Chairman of MIDROC Ethiopia, said he wants to expand modern farming in his country to supply jobs and increase productivity. “Now on I am a farmer,” he quipped. He told the audience attending the signing ceremony that he is managing his investment in Ethiopia with money from abroad. He also said his companies are winning such auctions of PPESA for they offer bigger, better bids.

Beyene, Director General of PPESA, commended MIDROC’s investment in Ethiopia including developments going on in businesses MIDROC bought from the Agency. He hoped MIDROC will make profound investments in the firms to make the most of the benefits and offer job opportunities to fellow citizens.