Saudi food producer Savola Group , the country's largest food products company, reported a 80.3 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, missing analysts' forecasts and after an exceptional gain made a year ago.

Net profit in the three months to March 31 was SR92.9 million ($24.78 million), compared with SR470.5 million in the same period a year earlier, Savola said in a bourse statement.

An average of three analysts polled by Reuters forecast Savola would make a quarterly net profit of SR268.1 million.

It attributed the fall in profit mainly to the fact its earnings were boosted in the same period last year by a SR265.2 million capital gain from the sale of its packaging unit to Takween Advanced Industries. - Reuters