Salic, the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, is buying a company that owns several agricultural assets in Russia. One of these assets is a large grain terminal on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov.
According to Bloomberg, Salic will acquire the Singapore-registered company Olam Agri, which owns the agricultural assets of the global company Olam Group, for $4B. Olam Group has confirmed that it has received an offer to acquire its division, but there is no final decision. Moscow said that the agreement opens the door to the Russian agricultural market for Saudi Arabia. The Azov grain terminal is designed to handle up to 1.4 million tons of grain per year.
Salic also controls significant assets in Ukraine. Recently, the investment fund purchased 12.6% of the shares of one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural holdings, MHP. Also, since 2018 Salic has owned the Continental Farmers Group brand, whose land bank reaches 195,000 hectares in four regions in Western Ukraine.