Learn Arabic (Modern Standard): حتى لو كان مكلفا، سيستحوذ على المصنع من قبل المنافسين. - Even if it is expensive, the factory will be acquired by the competitors.

In this modern passive structure, من قبل is used to introduce the explicit agent doing the action. Grammatically, قبل acts as the first part of an Idafa (possession or construct state), which forces the following noun into the genitive case. For a regular masculine plural noun, the genitive ending is '-in' (المنافسين) instead of the nominative '-un' (المنافسون).

Why is the factory introduced by على instead of becoming the direct subject of the passive verb?

The active verb استحوذ (to acquire or take over) always requires the preposition على. When making this type of verb passive, Arabic uses an 'impersonal passive' structure. The verb stays in the default 'he/it' form (يُستَحْوَذ), and the object stays exactly where it was, right after its preposition (على المصنع). The preposition prevents the factory from becoming a normal nominative subject.

Why does the word مكلفا (expensive) end with an extra alif?

It is the predicate (the descriptive part) of the verb كان (was/is). The verb كان and its sister verbs always force their predicate into the accusative case. For indefinite nouns, this accusative case is shown by adding a tanwin fatha (an '-an' sound), which is usually written with an extra alif at the end of the word.

Why does the sentence use the past tense verb كان (was) if the translation says 'Even if it IS expensive'?