Agthia signed a joint venture agreement with Al Wafir for Marketing Services, a leading player in wholesale food, to jointly set up a water bottling plant in Kuwait. The plant will produce under Agthia’s flagship brand “Al Ain.” Agthia’s disclosure gave no details regarding the size or potential impact of the deal. However, the move comes in line with the company’s strategy to close at least one deal by end-2016 in its core business categories.    Al-Wafir Marketing Services Company, owned by IFA, established Alforda Central Fruits and Vegetables market, a central wholesale market for fruits & vegetables, under an exclusive BOT structure in 2010 with the Government of Kuwait (for 19 years). Alforda operates a modern logistics and operations systems, with 31 loading and offloading docks, capacity to serve 1,000 trucks and handling 4,320 pallets daily with 17,000 sqm in warehousing space. In October 2015, Agthia signed a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of 100% of shares for three companies owned by Al Bayan Group; namely, Al Bayan Purification & Potable Water (UAE), Shaklan Plastic Manufacturing (UAE) and Al Manal Purification & Bottling Mineral Water (Oman-based). The deal deepened Agthia’s its presence in the drinkable water market in the GCC, particularly by growing its market share in the 5-gallon bulk segment in the UAE; where it became one of the top three players versus number six pre-acquisition as well as Oman.     The JV will aid in continued shift towards the higher-margin Consumer Business division. In addition to the Wafir and Al Bayyan deals, the company will double its bottled water capacity in 2016 by adding a second high-speed bottling. We reiterate our Buy rating on Agthia as the company continues to deliver robust double-digit earnings growth, supported by capacity additions as well as its strong brands and margin-focus strategy. (Nada S. Amin, Hatem Alaa, Company disclosure)