Savola Group, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading retail and food holding companies, has issued its fourth quarter and full year 2016 financial results.
Sulaiman A.K. Al-Muhaidib, chairman of Savola Group, said: “2016 was a year of important changes across the group.”
He added: “Importantly, our management team has proactively taken decisive action to address underperformance in our retail division through a carefully thought-through transformation program.”
He said: “In the food segment, while we had to take losses due to the currency devaluation in Egypt and other charges, the underlying fundamentals remain strong.”
The chairman said: “Looking ahead, our focus continues to be improving customer experience in our retail business and enhancing our productivity. As the macro-economic situation slowly improves, we are well-positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities.”
The group reported revenues of SR25 billion in 2016 as compared to SR25.1 billion in 2015.
The lack of growth in revenue was mainly due to the underperformance of the retail segment, exacerbated by the macro environment in Saudi Arabia, a company press release said.
The overall net loss for 2016 was SR451 million, compared to net profit of SR1.792 billion for 2015.
The company reported a number of exceptional one-off items that negatively impacted profitability.
Excluding these charges and the exceptionally high currency losses incurred last year, adjusted net profit for 2016 was SR810 million compared to adjusted net profit of SR1.480 billion in 2015.
Earnings per share were negative at SR0.85 and cash and cash equivalents stood at SR1.3 billion at the end of the year, according to the release.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, Savola reported revenues and a net loss of SR6.2 billion and SR964 million respectively. It recorded revenues of SR6.3 billion and a net profit of SR515 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Last year’s revenue was SR13.5 billion, in line with the same period last year. New store openings, coupled with a decline in Like for Like (LfL) sales, contributed to the revenues.
The decline in gross margins is partly due to the costs associated with inventory reduction.
The net loss was SR773 million compared to a profit of SR146 million in 2015. The normalized loss was SR396 million, the release added.
The average retail selling space increased by 1 percent in 2016 as 18 new stores were added across Saudi Arabia.
The strategy for Panda Retail Company over the last several years was to expand aggressively across Saudi Arabia.
The business has built up an extraordinary infrastructure, manifested by its leading store count and unique distribution capability in Saudi Arabia.
A portion of the operating losses in 2016, around SR106 million excluding closure costs, was associated with the convenience format, Pandati.
The format is being reconfigured through store closures and layout changes, the release added.
Savola Group to capitalize on growth opportunities
Savola Group to capitalize on growth opportunities
Cyberani achieves major milestone in 2025 MITRE ATT&CK evaluation
Cyberani by Aramco Digital, a leading provider of cybersecurity services and solutions, announced a significant achievement in the 2025 MITRE ATT&CK evaluations. The company successfully passed all assigned cybersecurity assessments and scored exceptional marks in detecting seven core attack tactics within the MITRE ATT&CK framework. These include 100 percent in collection tactics, 100 percent in credential access, 100 percent execution of code, 100 percent of data exfiltration, 100 percent lateral movement tactics, 100 percent of persistence activities, and 100 percent recon activities. This accomplishment reflects Cyberani’s strong capabilities in safeguarding the national cyberspace and enhancing its security posture, while reinforcing its position in the global cybersecurity field and demonstrating the advancement of its innovations on an international scale.
Alongside its technical performance in the evaluation, Cyberani was granted a seat on the ATT&CK Evals Participant Advisory Council. This position enables the company to contribute to the development and refinement of future evaluation methodologies, support better alignment between ATT&CK assessments and the needs of regional and global defense ecosystems, and strengthen Saudi Arabia’s role in shaping the future of cybersecurity worldwide.
The MITRE ATT&CK evaluation is an advanced technical assessment designed to simulate real adversary behavior and measure how cybersecurity solutions and threat detection services respond to the tactics, techniques, and procedures used in actual attacks. Through its participation, Cyberani aligned its threat detection capabilities with the ATT&CK framework widely adopted across the global cybersecurity community, providing measurable and transparent insights into system performance under complex and realistic attack scenarios.
Headquartered in Riyadh, Cyberani leverages extensive hands-on experience in protecting industrial environments and critical infrastructure. This expertise enables the company to bring national operational realities into a broader ATT&CK context and support the global community in deepening its understanding of threat detection performance across diverse operating environments.
During the 2025 evaluation, Cyberani’s threat detection capabilities and security monitoring services were tested against a wide range of ATT&CK techniques. The results provided a detailed view of how its detection systems responded to every phase of simulated attack chains, offering clear visibility into coverage areas performing as intended and identifying opportunities for further tuning and enhancement. These insights now fuel Cyberani’s cybersecurity development roadmap and support its ongoing improvement efforts.
Saeed Alsaeed, CEO of Cyberani, said that Cyberani’s participation in the MITRE ATT&CK evaluations and the results achieved in its threat detection capabilities provided the company with a structured and transparent understanding of its performance across complex attack scenarios and enabled it to implement more precise enhancements.
This milestone aligns with Cyberani’s strategy to safeguard regional infrastructure with advanced cyber solutions, fueled by innovation and empowered by world-class Saudi talent.
