Dubai: Majid Al Futtaim Holding is still keeping all options open for a mall development in Saudi Arabia, which if it were to happen would be a wholly-owned venture, according to a top official.
“In 99 per cent of instances, our strategy has been to keep control of the core business ... we are clearly not looking for partners in Saudi Arabia,” said Alain G. Bejjani, CEO.
“It’s something we have considered over multiple years, and we already have our other subsidiaries — through Retail (via the Carrefour chain among others) and Ventures — operational there for seven or eight years now and a Magic Planet set to open midyear.”
Helming a mall project in Saudi Arabia would be a natural progression geographically for the holding company, which is marking its 20th year of operations. It has been building up presence in Egypt — through exposures such as the Mall of Egypt, which is under development, as well as a “Ski” offering — and capped by the confirmation earlier this month of a 22.5 billion Egyptian pound (Dh10.79 billion) investment outlay in that market over the next five years. Dubai/UAE remains the dominant market in terms of revenue generation as of now.
“We are looking to double in size in the next five years and we remain committed to the Mena territory,” said Bejjani, who ruled out the possibility of the holding company creating multiple operational subsidiaries and taking them into an IPO [initial public offering] mode.
The group currently has assets valued at Dh45 billion, while the number of visitors who trooped through the various retail and entertainment offerings last year topped 230 million. And over the course of a 20-year period, that number rises to 1.6 billion.
The CEO also declined to say whether raising new funds or refinancing existing ones was on the immediate agenda.
“Opportunities are always looked at ... we have issued some in the past and — at the right time — could issue more according to the market conditions at the time,” Bejjani said.
Additional hospitality specific ventures are starting to take shape in its portfolio, with 10 properties under construction. The holding company is also overseeing residential projects, though “none in Dubai as yet”.
On whether Dubai can absorb more retail capacity coming online, Bejjani said: “As long as tourists keep coming, the [local] population keeps growing at 8-9 per cent, there’s always room for more quality gross leasable area [GLA].”
