One of Algeria’s biggest companies, CEVITAL is a major food manufacturing outfit, which also has extensive interests in retail. It is headed by flamboyant businessman Issad Rebrab, who is also building a giant industrial complex worth an estimated $20bn. Rebrab’s companies are believed to control a significant portion of the sugar and vegetable oil markets in the country; when protests erupted in Algeria earlier this year, the magnate voluntarily dropped prices further than the government had required.