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Majid al-Futtaim Group to invest US$4 billion on 10 new Middle East shopping malls
Source: BI-ME , Author: BI-ME staff
Posted: Wed November 4, 2009 4:04 pm
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UAE. Majid al-Futtaim Group plans to spend about US$4 billion on as many as 10 new malls as its MAF Shopping Malls unit expands in the Middle East reported Bloomberg, citing a company official. 

“It’s about US$4 billion,” Shahram Shamsaee, senior vice president of retail for MAF Shopping Malls, told Bloomberg in an interview today.

“But when you look at a project that’s three years out, it is hard to know for sure since it depends on so many factors including labor costs, raw materials, steel, cement, etc.”

MAF Shopping Malls plans to enter Syria by building two new centers in Damascus, as well as one in Beirut, Lebanon. The company will also announce a new project in Saudi Arabia, Shamsaee said, declining to provide further details.

“We are always on the lookout and doing some preliminary talks in other locations,” he said.

MAF Shopping Malls is the developer of Mall of the Emirates, the Dubai-based shopping center with an indoor ski slope, and Bahrain City Center, the country’s biggest mall.

Expansion plans for the Mall of the Emirates are on track and the new wing is set to open in September 2010, Shamsaee said.

MIDDLE EAST BUSINESS COMMENT & ANALYSIS

date:Posted: November 19, 2009
INTERNATIONAL. A majority of investors expects the US Federal Reserve to hold off from raising interest rates until the second half of 2010, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for November.
date:Posted: November 19, 2009
INTERNATIONAL. Faber said, considering the size of the stimulus packages and the monetary printing, the US economy hasn't responded well. What have responded well are asset markets but unemployment is horrrible and the typical household is suffering.
date:Posted: November 18, 2009
INTERNATIONAL. The global health industry is worth around US$4.2 trillion. As GCC countries continue to develop world class healthcare systems, they must avoid pitfalls of the developed markets, according to AT Kearney.
UAE. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum tightened the control of the emirate's largest holding company, the Investment Corporation of Dubai.