Jeddah-based Tamer Group, a leading healthcare and consumer goods firm, has signed a deal with Emaar, The Economic City (EEC) to buy 500,000 sq m of freehold land in the Industrial Valley at King Abdullah Economic City, said a report.

EEC is a consortium led by Dubai's Emaar Properties and a number of high profile Saudi investors which is developing the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).

The agreement is part of KAEC's strategy to attract a large number of specialised industrial companies in the Industrial Valley, the Arab News reported.

The first phase of the Industrial Valley, which is spread over 1,600,000 sq m with an infrastructure of integrated services, has been leased to major local and international companies such as Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, Mars, Greif and Total, the report stated.

The second phase, with an area of more than 7,000,000 sq m, is currently in progress, it added.

"For Tamer Group to choose Industrial Valley signifies the strength of KAEC's investments and achievements," said Fahd Al-Rasheed, managing director and chief executive officer of KAEC after signing the deal with Ayman Mamon Tamer, chairman and board member of  Tamer Group.

"Tamer's new complex will develop areas of manufacturing pharmaceuticals and food with plans for diversification and integration," he added.

Mamon Tamer said the setting up of the new complex would represent an important transformation for both the trade and industrial sectors.

“Building this pharmaceutical industry complex on 5,000 sq m of land at Industrial Valley is in line with our group's long term direction in manufacturing, logistics and distribution of medicines, foods, nutrition and beauty products," he added.