The Dubai developer Nakheel has pulled out of a joint venture with the French hypermarket chain Auchan because of the economic climate, Auchan says.
Auchan closed its hypermarket in Nakheel's Dragon Mart at the end of last year after Nakheel said it did not want to proceed with their joint plans to open 55 stores across the Gulf over 10 years, said Leandre Boulez, a director of Auchan and one of the board members of Auchan Dubai.
"The first store opened and it grew progressively, but because of the economic situation Nakheel decided to review its position regarding the development of its own retail activity. And so they have decided not to continue with this franchise."
Nakheel was not available for comment.
It entered the partnership with Auchan in mid-2008 and planned to spend at least US$800 million (Dh2.93 billion) over the next decade opening 15 hypermarkets and 40 supermarkets across the Gulf.
The joint venture company was to open as many as 40 stores in Dubai alone in Nakheel's developments, starting with Dragon Mart, a large Chinese-themed mall in International City, and later on the Palm Jumeirah, Palm Deira and Jumeirah Village. It opened an Auchan hypermarket in Dragon Mart in mid-2009.
Nakheel later faced big hurdles after the financial crisis hit Dubai. It postponed construction on retail projects such as the mall on the Palm Jumeirah and the extension of Ibn Battuta Mall. But the developer has said it plans to resume work on at least four of these shopping malls this year.
In March last year Dubai World's retail arm, Nakheel Retail, later known as Retailcorp World, dropped many of its other brands as part of a radical overhaul of the company.
It closed its Lamborghini-branded cafes and cancelled plans to bring the US gourmet grocery chain Balducci's to the region.
Its parent company, Dubai World, asked in November 2009 for a standstill on its payments to contractors. Dubai World reached a final agreement last September with its bank creditors to restructure $24.9bn of debt. Nakheel is in the middle of its own plans to settle claims by contractors.
Mr Boulez said Nakheel's decision to pull out of the hypermarket venture was made in September last year.
"It's a loss of an opportunity for us but it has happened [before] that we have entered and closed relationships with partners here and there," he said.
"It's a situation but it's not a very big issue for us."
Mr Boulez said it was too early to say whether Auchan would try to re-enter the Gulf with another local partner.
Auchan has 537 hypermarkets and 732 supermarkets in 12 countries across Europe and Asia.
[ aligaya@thenational.ae ]
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League last-16, second leg:
Real Madrid 1 (Asensio 70'), Ajax 4 (Ziyech 7', Neres 18', Tadic 62', Schone 72')
Ajax win 5-3 on aggregate
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Tips from the expert
Dobromir Radichkov, chief data officer at dubizzle and Bayut, offers a few tips for UAE residents looking to earn some cash from pre-loved items.
- Sellers should focus on providing high-quality used goods at attractive prices to buyers.
- It’s important to use clear and appealing photos, with catchy titles and detailed descriptions to capture the attention of prospective buyers.
- Try to advertise a realistic price to attract buyers looking for good deals, especially in the current environment where consumers are significantly more price-sensitive.
- Be creative and look around your home for valuable items that you no longer need but might be useful to others.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Haltia.ai
Started: 2023
Co-founders: Arto Bendiken and Talal Thabet
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine 2.4L four-cylinder
Gearbox Nine-speed automatic
Power 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.4L/100km
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
MATCH INFO
Crawley Town 3 (Tsaroulla 50', Nadesan 53', Tunnicliffe 70')
Leeds United 0
