ADQ to back Lulu’s expansion in Egypt with $1 billion investment

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Published 19 Oct,2020 via Bloomberg Markets - Abu Dhabi’s ADQ will partner with LuLu Group International, which runs one of the Middle East’s largest hypermarket chains, by investing $1 billion to back the grocer’s expansion in Egypt, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ADQ, formerly known as Abu Dhabi Development Holding Co., will team up with Lulu to develop stores and other operations across the Arab world’s most populous nation, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. An investment company led by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who also chairs ADQ, acquired an almost 20% holding in LuLu earlier this year.

Lulu declined to comment. ADQ wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Lulu is an Abu Dhabi-based supermarket group founded by Indian entrepreneur Yusuff Ali, who set up the business during a years-long oil boom in the Gulf region. It reached a deal last year to set up four hypermarkets in Egypt. The company has an annual turnover of about $7.4 billion and employs more than 55,000 people.

The expansion into Egypt would follow plans by Saudi Arabia’s $360 billion sovereign wealth fund to explore a potential investment in LuLu. ADQ has invested in LuLu Group businesses except in its Indian and Qatari operations, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this month.

Egypt has been looking to attract foreign capital to revive its economy. Last year it set up a $20 billion joint platform with the United Arab Emirates to invest in a range of sectors and assets.

Set up in 2018 as a holding company for some of the UAE’s biggest assets including Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Abu Dhabi Airports Co., ADQ has been on an acquisition spree.

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