Marka, the retail and restaurants start-up recently listed on the Dubai Financial Market, is set to make a profit 18 months ahead of schedule, according to Nick Peel, the newly installed chief executive.
Mr Peel said that last month’s acquisition of the sports good retailer Retailcorp from government-owned Istithmar would bring in revenue and profit for Marka in the current year, ahead of the forecast break-even date of 2016-17.
“We see 2015 as the year when we start to fly. We move from start-up to retail phase. We’ll be in profit by the end of the year,” Mr Peel said.
He also revealed that Marka, which raised Dh500 million in equity last year in the first initial public offering on the DFM for five years, was on the verge of a series of acquisitions and start- ups that could further increase profitability.
New ventures would be paid for by cash and borrowing, and Marka would still have cash at the end of this year. It paid Dh220m for Retailcorp in cash and debt.
“We have another couple of acquisitions in the sports sector in mind. We’re hoping these will come to fruition in the next three to six months,” Mr Peel said.
He added that Marka was also looking at four asset purchases in the food and beverage sector, but gave no time frame or value for these plans.
Marka’s five-year plan envisages the company expanding in the UAE in its first two years, followed by growth in the GCC and finally spreading out to the rest of the world, with operations inthe US, Europe and Asia.
Mr Peel said growth would take place evenly across Marka’s three main business lines: sports goods, food and beverage, and fashion. In sports goods, he identified football merchandise and women’s brands as growth areas.
He said that Marka’s business was not wholly dependent on riding the boom in consumer spending in the UAE.
fkane@thenational.ae
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