Abu Dhabi's Lulu Retail to pay Dh361.5m H1-2025 dividend

Dubai: Lulu Retail will be paying shareholders Dh361.5 million – at 3.5 fils a share – after recording revenues of over Dh14.68 billion in the first six months of 2025.

This was a period when the Abu Dhabi based hypermarket operator continued to add more stores as well as rollout its Lot budget stores.

The company also said it was picking up more sales via its ecommerce platform. In H1-24, Lulu revenues were Dh13.9 billion.

On the profit side, the H1-25 total shows Dh465.7 million, up from Dh427.1 million.

The last date of entitlement for the H1-25 dividend is August 20. The Lulu retail share is trading at Dh1.21 on ADX, after dropping more than 30% in the year to date. The stock had regained some strength in between. (The IPO price was Dh2.04.)

During the first-half 2025, the ‘average basket value, customer count and sales per square metre all increased positively’, said Saifee Rupawala, CEO of Lulu Retail. That meant an average of 690,000 daily shoppers.

“Expansion continues in line with our strategy with seven stores opening in H1-2025 and further four in July, taking the total store count to 259,” said the CEO. “Our loyalty program continues to grow, with c.1 million new members joining during the second quarter, taking total count to 7.3 million.”

During the April to June quarter, Lulu sales were higher by 4.6%. "There was strong growth in the UAE and good growth recorded in the key market of KSA," said a statement.

In the UAE, the retailer's biggest market, revenue growth in Q2-25 was an impressive 9.4% year-on-year.

"A key component was the continuing strong demand for fresh food in the region, which was leveraged through Lulu’s omni-channel offerings," the statement added.

Going forward, "Lulu continues to expand digital and value-focused retail strategy through multiple initiatives, increasing our category presence on aggregator platforms to grow e-commerce share," the retail said.

There was the move into 'quick commerce', where deliveries are done on an average of 15 minutes or so. And then there was the introduction of the 'Lot' store-in-store value format to tap into the fast-growing home product, value fashion and lifestyle segments'.

Lot offers products priced under Dh30.

Targeting budget-conscious shoppers could pay off long-term for Lulu, industry sources say. "Currently, the value buying shoppers in the UAE and GCC have too many scattered options to make their kind of purchases," said a retail analyst. "If Lulu through Lot can tap into this segment, it creates significant boost to the revenue side.

"Also, with Lot being store-in-store concepts, Lulu's upfront costs can be better managed."