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Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC
Majid Al Futtaim builds and runs shopping malls, owns the Carrefour supermarket franchise in the Middle East, and develops hotels, homes, and entertainment venues.
Majid Al Futtaim is the Middle East's biggest shopping mall and retail group. If you have ever wandered through the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, the skiing-in-the-desert place with the indoor snow slope, you have stood inside one of its buildings. The company builds and operates giant malls, owns the rights to run Carrefour supermarkets across much of the region, and develops hotels, cinemas, homes, and leisure venues. It is a private family-owned holding company headquartered in Dubai, with a sprawling footprint across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia.
The mall business is the anchor. Majid Al Futtaim opened its first mall in Dubai in 1995 and now runs a long list of them, from the Mall of the Emirates to City Centre malls scattered across the region. A mall makes money by collecting rent from the shops, restaurants, and cinemas inside it, and the more people who visit, the more those tenants are willing to pay. Its answer to boring malls was to stuff them with experiences: ski slopes, giant aquariums, fountains, and indoor theme parks. The bet is that in a hot region or a place where online shopping keeps growing, people will still leave home if the trip is fun enough. Retail is the second leg, and it runs through the Carrefour franchise. Majid Al Futtaim operates Carrefour hypermarkets and supermarkets across the region, a sprawling grocery and general-merchandise business that puts it in direct competition with local chains and discounters. Groceries are a low-margin, high-volume game, and owning the franchise gives the company a steady flow of everyday customers who also spend money in its malls and entertainment venues. The group also runs cinemas under the VOX brand and develops hotels and residential property, which ties back to the malls by driving foot traffic and filling the surrounding land. The company is still family-controlled, which shapes how it behaves. In 2021 it sold a stake in its retail arm, and in the years since it has invested heavily in expanding Carrefour stores and building new destinations. It is a private company, so there is no public stock to buy. That means the owners decide where the cash goes: into new malls, new stores, and new entertainment concepts, rather than dividends to outside shareholders.
The interesting tension is that the mall-and-supermarket model is old-fashioned in a world of online delivery and discount shopping. Majid Al Futtaim's answer is to sell the experience — the ski slope and the cinema night out — rather than just the handbag. It is a simple bet: if the place is a day out, people will keep showing up and paying rent, even when the sofa and the app are cheaper.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026