Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

UAE’s Lulu selects banks for potential $2bn IPO

By Pramod Kumar
Retailer Lulu has branches across the Mena region, India and the Far East. It plans a billion-dollar IPO before the end of the year Creative Touch Imaging/Reuters Connect
Founded by Indian billionaire Yusuff Ali in the early 1990s, Lulu has an annual revenue of about $8 billion

UAE’s retail conglomerate LuLu Group International has appointed local and international banks to lead its proposed $2 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to a media report.

The company, which is among the largest hypermarket chain operators in the Middle East, has selected Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC Holdings to handle its planned floatation, Bloomberg reported, quoting unnamed sources.

New York-headquartered Moelis & Company has taken on the role of an independent financial adviser.

No decision has been taken on the exact IPO size and timing, the report said.

In August 2023, Bloomberg reported that Lulu would raise $2.72 billion from local banks to refinance debt ahead of a potential IPO.

Founded by Indian billionaire Yusuff Ali in the early 1990s, the retail operator has an annual revenue of about $8 billion and employs more than 65,000 people in 23 countries across the Middle East, Asia, the US and Europe.

Nearly 30 companies in the Middle East and North Africa plan to launch initial public offerings this year, despite mixed share price performance from many regional businesses that went public last year, according to the report by consultants EY.

Latest articles

The SPA report highlighted a number of metrics as being on target, including home ownership of 53.7 percent

Third of Vision 2030 projects ‘completed’ government says

One third of 1,064 planned projects have been completed so far under the Vision 2030 economic transformation plan, the Saudi government said in its annual progress report on the reform programme.   The report also said 561 initiatives were on track, according to the state-owned Saudi Press Agency, publishing its major findings. It was not […]

Tawfik Alzaidi

Saudi director’s labour of love takes the kingdom to Cannes

For the first time a Saudi film has been selected to compete in the Cannes film festival, catapulting its little-known self-taught director into the limelight. Tawfik Alzaidi was so surprised that he’d managed to break through to the big time that he kept the news that his film Norah had been accepted for the ‘Un […]

Migrants attempting to reach Italy from Tunisia. About 270,000 so-called irregular migrants arrived in the EU via sea crossings last year

EU reveals total aid to North Africa to combat migration 

The European Union provided €673 million ($718 million) in funding to four North African countries from 2021-23 to help the quartet reduce what it calls irregular migration to the 27-member bloc, official data shows. Last year about 270,000 “irregular migrants” arrived in the EU via sea crossings, 64 percent more than in 2022. Crossings from […]

Joby Aviation's CEO JoeBen Bevirt (2nd left) at the signing of a multilateral agreement with the three Abu Dhabi government departments

Abu Dhabi signs multiple deals to launch air taxi services in 2025

A commute from Abu Dhabi to Dubai could take only 30 minutes next year, with the introduction of air taxi services significantly slashing travel time between the emirates. The electric aircraft manufacturer Joby Aviation signed agreements this week with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport, Department of Economic Development and Department of Culture and […]