Lulu in $500m Egypt investment spree

Egypt's Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities has signed an agreement with the UAE's Lulu Group to establish new hypermarkets in areas of Cairo.
Dr Ibrahim Ashmawy, Deputy Minister of Internal Trade and chairman of the Internal Trade Development Authority; and Enf Tarek El Sebaiy, Deputy Minister of Housing, signed the agreement with Yusuff Ali M.A., chairman of Lulu Group International, in the presence of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly along with supply and internal trade Ali minister Al Meselhi and housing, utilities and urban communities minister Assem Al Gazzar at the cabinet headquarters in Cairo.
Under these contracts, four projects will be built by the Urban Communities Authority within 12 months, with Lulu Group starting to manage and operate the projects in a period of three to six months from the date of completion of the construction in New Cairo, 6th October City and El Obour, said Al Meselhi. This is part of the government's plan to attract foreign investments, he added.
Apart from this, Lulu is also finalising plans to set up another six hypermarkets and four mini markets with other developers from the private sector. Lulu is also in final stages of discussions with the government to enter the wholesale market for vegetables and fruits, plus a logistics centre to support its retail activities in the country.
"When we started thinking about investing in Egypt, we had a plan to pump only $100 million, but today we finalised plans to invest $500 million to establish a number of hypermarkets and minimarkets, providing 8,000 sustainable jobs for the Egyptians," Yussuf Ali said.
At present, Lulu has one hypermarket in the capital Cairo where it employs over 500 Egyptians.
- business@khaleejtimes.com