Lactalis subsidiary tops rival bid for Egypt's Arab Dairy

A subsidiary of Europe's biggest dairy group Lactalis has raised its offer for Egypt's Arab Dairy to 65.75 Egyptian pounds per share, topping the latest rival bid from Pioneers Holding.

The revised bid values Arab Dairy at 395 million Egyptian pounds ($51.77 million) compared with around 385 million Egyptian pounds for the latest Pioneers offer.

Egypt's market regulator said in a statement it had accepted the new bid from the Lactalis subsidiary, called Al-Nour for Dairy Industries, and had extended the deadline for new bids to Feb. 22.

Pioneers, a financial firm that already owns 25 percent of Arab Dairy, increased its offer for the company to 64.30 pounds per share a week ago, on Feb. 8, topping the previous offer of 63 pounds from Lactalis.