Lulu Signs Deal to Open New Hypermarket in Dubai

DUBAI, 13 June 2006 -- Lulu Hypermarkets, a division of EMKE group, signed a deal yesterday to open a new hypermarket in the Karama area of Dubai. Humaid Sultan Al-Mutaiwei, director general of Real Estate Department of Dubai government, and businessman M.A. Yusufali, managing director of EMKE Group, signed the long lease agreement for the hypermarket.

Commenting on the new project, Yusufali said: "In keeping pace with the all round development taking place in Dubai, we see great potential for our kind of hypermarkets especially in residential areas like Karama. We're highly appreciative of the fact that government of Dubai has signed this important deal with us and would strive hard to reciprocate the trust they have reposed on us."

On other new projects in Dubai Yusufali said: "The new 500,000 sq ft hypermarket in Barsha is nearing completion and plans are afoot for new projects in other fast developing suburbs of Dubai.

"Our immediate future GCC projects include Lulu Hypermarkets in Riyadh and Alkhobar, Aden in Yemen, Kuwait, Muscat, and Manama in Bahrain," Yusufali added.

"Khalidiyah Mall and Al-Wahda Mall, the two mega projects in Abu Dhabi are nearing completion and fully leased out. Al-Raha Mall on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway, of which we recently took the management rights, is being leased out now. Other shopping mall projects taking shape in the GCC are in Muscat, Riyadh, Doha and Bahrain," he explained

"Lulu Shopping Mall in Cochin will be our first retail venture in India with more than a 1 million square feet shopping and leisure area, which will house India's biggest hypermarket apart from other world-class amenities such as 12 cinema Multiplex, food courts, family entertainment centers and more than 200 international branded stores," he added.

"At present we've 51 hypermarkets and supermarkets and we plan to cross the 60 figure mark by mid-2007," Yusufali added.

By K.T. Abdurabb