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RABAT, March 31 (Reuters) - Morocco's National Investment Co. (SNI), an investment holding firm controlled by the country's monarchy, reported a 7.7 percent fall in 2015 net profit, it said on Thursday.
Net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 3.31 billion dirhams ($343.91 million) from 3.56 billion, a financial statement published in the pro-palace newspaper Le Matin showed.
Year-earlier earnings were inflated by capital gains from the sale of stakes in the food industry, it said.
Consolidated turnover fell 1.4 percent to 33.42 billion dirhams while assets fell to 98.01 billion dirhams from 100.29 billions, it said.
SNI is the largest private stakeholder in the North African kingdom's economy.
In 2013, it sold its stakes in dairy firm Centrale Laitiere to French partner Danone , and the remaining 50 percent holding in biscuit maker Bimo to Kraft Heinz Company. It also sold the sole operator in Morocco's sugar industry, Cosumar.
SNI sold its remaining minority stakes in Cosumar and Centrale Laitiere in 2015.
It plans to focus its growth strategy on sectors such as tourism, telecoms and renewable energy and to expand in Africa.
Rabat has recently launched a major renewable energy development plan, designed to turn the North African country into a main supplier of clean electricity to Europe. SNI's subsidiary Nareva has been a major player in the plan with heavy investment.
SNI is the main shareholder in some of the country's biggest firms, including AttijariWafa Bank, miner Managem, energy firm Nareva, cement company Lafarge Maroc and Marjane, Morocco's main supermarket chain.
SNI said last year that it had hired Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to advise it on the sale of a minority stake in AttijariWafa Bank, one of Morocco's biggest lenders.
($1 = 9.6247 Moroccan dirham)
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; editing by Jason Neely) ((aziz.elyaakoubi@thomsonreuters.com; +212623934595)(;))
RABAT, March 31 (Reuters) - Morocco's National Investment Co. (SNI), an investment holding firm controlled by the country's monarchy, reported a 7.7 percent fall in 2015 net profit, it said on Thursday.
Net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 3.31 billion dirhams ($343.91 million) from 3.56 billion, a financial statement published in the pro-palace newspaper Le Matin showed.
Year-earlier earnings were inflated by capital gains from the sale of stakes in the food industry, it said.
Consolidated turnover fell 1.4 percent to 33.42 billion dirhams while assets fell to 98.01 billion dirhams from 100.29 billions, it said.
SNI is the largest private stakeholder in the North African kingdom's economy.
In 2013, it sold its stakes in dairy firm Centrale Laitiere to French partner Danone , and the remaining 50 percent holding in biscuit maker Bimo to Kraft Heinz Company. It also sold the sole operator in Morocco's sugar industry, Cosumar.
SNI sold its remaining minority stakes in Cosumar and Centrale Laitiere in 2015.
It plans to focus its growth strategy on sectors such as tourism, telecoms and renewable energy and to expand in Africa.
Rabat has recently launched a major renewable energy development plan, designed to turn the North African country into a main supplier of clean electricity to Europe. SNI's subsidiary Nareva has been a major player in the plan with heavy investment.
SNI is the main shareholder in some of the country's biggest firms, including AttijariWafa Bank, miner Managem, energy firm Nareva, cement company Lafarge Maroc and Marjane, Morocco's main supermarket chain.
SNI said last year that it had hired Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to advise it on the sale of a minority stake in AttijariWafa Bank, one of Morocco's biggest lenders.
($1 = 9.6247 Moroccan dirham)
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; editing by Jason Neely) ((aziz.elyaakoubi@thomsonreuters.com; +212623934595)(;))
