Dubai retail group Majid Al Futtaim hopes to invest $1 billion a year for the next five years in the Middle East to double the size of its business, its chief executive said Tuesday. MAF, the sole franchisee of Carrefour hypermarkets in the region, has benefited from a trade and tourism boom in Dubai and is now expanding into other markets including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Lebanon. “Over the next few years we are very likely to be investing $1 billion a year. However, this very much depends on finding the right land in the right location and for the right price,” MAF chief executive Iyad Malas said at a news conference to announce a new branding strategy for the firm. About 70 percent of the company’s assets are currently in the United Arab Emirates, but most of the investments over the next few years would be in other countries, Malas said. MAF reported annual revenue of $6 billion in 2012, 10 percent higher than the previous year. The mall developer, famous for building an indoor ski slope in Dubai, bought Carrefour’s 25 percent stake in a joint venture for $683 million in May. The firm wanted to buy Egypt’s supermarket chain Metro from family-owned Mansour Group but discussions collapsed last month.
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