Majid Al Futtaim reports 8% revenue, 9% EBITDA growth

Majid Al Futtaim – shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure operator across the Middle East, Africa and Asia – have announced revenue growth by 8% reaching, AED 34.6 billion, while EBITDA increased by 9% year-on-year to AED4.6 billion. These numbers have been announced as part of its preliminary and unaudited operational and financial results for 2018. The company continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with total assets valued at AED60.4 billion and a net debt of around AED12.6 billion.

Majid Al Futtaim’s sustained financial growth was driven by the expansion and diversification efforts across various geographies and by adopting a culture of operational excellence that promotes cost optimisation and efficiency.

While commenting on the company’s performance, Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Holding, says, “2018 has been a year of growth for our company, despite the macroeconomic challenges that affected consumer sentiment. Our strategy to diversify our offering and geographical presence, as well as our commitment to customer centricity and technology investments has yielded great results. I’m humbled by the efforts of my fellow MAFers, who worked diligently to ensure the resilience of our business.”

The company’s transformation journey continued in 2018 with the enhancement of its’ integrated customer experience offerings, data and analytics capabilities and upskilling and reskilling plans, using technology as an enabler to accelerate future-proofing of the business. In fact, employees enrolled at Majid Al Futtaim’s School of Analytics and Technology, launched in 2017, have completed 33,000 learning hours, as part of the transformation process. And a new Retail Business School has been recently launched for its Carrefour employees.

During 2018, Majid Al Futtaim continued to pursue investment opportunities to enhance its digital capabilities and deliver a seamless omnichannel customer experience, while expanding its physical footprint. The organisation entered into several strategic partnerships and an acquisition – including BEAM and I.AM+ and Wadi, respectively – which complement the business offering and add a digital dimension to the portfolio.

The company celebrated the opening of two new shopping malls in the UAE and Oman, grew its hotel portfolio to 13 assets and added 33 grocery retail stores, growing its portfolio to 264.

Majid Al Futtaim’s investments in sustainable experiences and initiatives continued to grow in 2018 with the recognition of the ‘Green Star’ Rating by Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmarks (GRESB) for the fifth consecutive year. Standards and measures put in place across the business, resulted in a score of 84%, outperforming the global benchmark average by 7% and the GRESB average by 17%. The company is ranked sixth best performing non-listed company in the retail sector across Asia.