MENA Opportunities

Novice entrepreneurs can be reluctant to launching their own businesses due to lack of knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. Educational websites and e-magazines can play a major role in educating entrepreneurs, exposing them to institutions that can help them receive mentorship and funding, or telling stories of success or failure that can be instructional. Two Saudis, Tariq Buhilaigah and Yousuf Jamjoom, decided to launch Saudipreneurship, an e-magazine in both Arabic and English, to help bridge the wide knowledge gap in the entrepreneurship sector in Saudi Arabia, says Youssef. Jamjoom met Buhilaigah through a program for the i2 Institute, and then they attended the Poptech conference together in the United States in 2013. At the time, Jamjoom was working on his own project, 7arf, a platform for online courses, and Buhilaigah was working on a project of his own as well. At Poptech, they discussed the entrepreneurship situation in Saudi Arabia and the existing gap between e...

Lebanon has always prided itself on its knack for entrepreneurship, a trend that seems to be picking up among young Lebanese behind a series of hip and creative start-ups. Serene Abbas and Narina Najm have set up their headquarters on the sixth floor of an office building in Manara, a neighborhood in Beirut overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The two young women met at the ad agency JWT before taking the start-up plunge. With their associate Jad Sarout they launched Raghunter in December 2012, an online search tool that provides shoppers with fashion items located in over 70 of Lebanon’s trendiest stores. “We wanted to provide an online service to the Lebanese fashion industry and add value to the shopping experience of consumers,” says Abbas. “To do that, we had to figure out some of the problems faced by fashion retailers and work on their online presence. We also catered to the needs of consumers who have a hectic life and see shopping as time consuming. We basically want to beco...

The Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy has been officially inaugurated by HH Sheikh Majid bin Mohammed al Maktoum. The ceremony also honoured the first batch of graduates from the Academy, with 104 people successfully completing the Entrepreneurship Diploma and the Professional Hospitality & Restaurant Management Certificate programmes offered at the institution. The Academy is a first of its kind initiative from Dubai SME, part of the Department of Economic Development, and aims to provide existing and potential entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge required to become business leaders. Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME, said: “The Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy is a novel initiative which will lead to a stronger support system for SME owners and future entrepreneurs, and ensure they have the necessary skills and experience to succeed. “The programmes offered by this Academy will go a long way in turning entrepreneurial ideas into business plans and lead to more enterpr...

In its search for capital Aramex became the first Arab-based company to list on Nasdaq. It was a mistake that became the making of the company. “I don’t know if anyone isn’t afraid of failing,” Fadi Ghandour, founder and recently departed CEO of transport and logistics company, Aramex International, surmises when asked about his reputation for being fearless. “Trying can lead to failure but there’s balance in being confident enough to say if I fail – if I fall – I will try again.” Whether it’s new markets, new products, new partnerships or innovative ways to raise money, Ghandour has infused his staff with the mantra: don’t stick to the menu and don’t be afraid to try. It’s the story of the early days of Aramex, (an acronym of Arab American Express). Created in 1982 as a small Jordanian courier service with big ideas, assisted by strong international partnerships and dogged determination, it became one of the leading logistics and transportation companies in the Middle East and Sou...

Raja Trad is the CEO of Leo Burnett Group MENA, an  integrated communications network headquartered in Dubai  with offices in Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait, Beirut, Amman, Cairo  and Casablanca. Through solid and expansive partnerships with its multinational clients and through the strong growth of its regional and local accounts, Leo Burnett MENA has become  one of the region’s leading agencies. Now a member of the Leo Burnett Worldwide Global  Leadership Council, Trad began his career in advertising in 1978 as an account executive with Young & Rubicam on the P&G account in Beirut and Athens. In 1981, he joined H&C Leo Burnett Beirut as an account director, and in 1984 he was named regional account director on the Philip Morris account. Trad moved to Bahrain in 1987 as subregional managing director for the Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait operations. He also served as regional account director on Philip Morris. In 1991, Trad became the CEO of Leo Burnett Middle E...

Arabic game development is on the rise. Many talented regional indie as well as larger gaming studios have emerged over the last couple of years, primarily in Amman, Riyadh, and Cairo, followed closely by the UAE and Lebanon. This is aided by ever-improving infrastructure (greater internet availability at lower cost) in the region, which vastly increases the potential reach for online desktop games. Mobile game consumption has also boosted the local markets. As people in the Arab region use games more than ever, regional game developers have responded by tailoring games directly to them. Touches of local flavor in new Arabic games have made them even more popular with regional users. We also see international competitions and incubators helping many regional developers get through that crucial initial funding stage. At the same time, many of the medium-to-large game developers are looking to expand into Western markets to further grow their user base. These developments are very pr...

There seems to be a pattern brewing in MENA when it comes to raising an angel round. Instead of seeing more investors believing in the market and the opportunity it holds and investing in great entrepreneurs to built great companies, we see companies actually sabotaging themselves by thinking smaller and smaller and trying to raise less and less. Is this out of desperation or because of a lack of confidence in their idea? Or is it just that investors think they are in charge? Something strange over the past few trips to places like Dubai, Cairo, Amman, Istanbul, and many of the new ecosystems of MENA.  We in the valley keep saying: “Think bigger." And instead, companies are thinking "smaller.” What is going on?  This is an ongoing theme…over and over. A company gets on stage, tries to explain what they do (not very well), with no passion and no story, and 9 out of 10 times, it ends with: "If there are any investors in the room, we would love to talk with you. We are ...

If Egypt’s entrepreneurship world has a movie star celebrity, it is undoubtedly Omar Samra. In a country without a mainstream outdoor culture, Samra is celebrated as the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest in 2007 and is now poised to become the first Egyptian to go into space at the end of 2015. He routinely appears on the covers of fitness and culture magazines and strangers approach him in the street for business advice. Behind this celebrity status and inspirational TED talks is the daily grind of running a business Samra set up in May 2009, an adventure travel company Wild Guanabana. The company celebrated its five-year anniversary last week. During this time, Wild Guanabana expanded from Cairo to Dubai, broadened the range of its travel products, grew from a team of one to a staff of seven people and is now eyeing Saudi Arabia for its next chapter. Five years ago, Samra quit the comfort and predictability of the corporate world, a private equity company, to bootstrap a nich...

In the midst of the Arabnet Beirut conference last week, the Berlin-based photo-sharing app EyeEm announced that it had signed a deal with Getty Images that would allow for its members to sell their work. For Lebanese co-founder Ramzi Rizk, who traveled to Beirut to speak at the conference and judge a startup competition on the sidelines, this meant a major milestone for his three-year old company that has already raise $6 million in funding, which will now finally be able to turn a profit. It also meant the chance to get to know the startup scene and see how he could help his home country, which he’d left at age 17 to pursue his IT studies in Germany. “This was my first trip back in the region in years. The main reason I said yes was to get introduced to the ecosystem. I met street photographers who reached out to me,” said Mr. Rizk. “I wanted to see if there was a scene, if there was an entrepreneurial bug. There’s a really blossoming scene. Being one of early ones in Berlin, I s...

Only 500 Americans were allowed into Iran this year and Chris Schroeder is one of them. His recent trip was focused on entrepreneurship taking place in the MENA. He has also written a book called, Startup Rising: Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking in the MENA. Chris Schroeder joins Craig by phone for a conversation about his experience. More than half of Iran’s population is under 30 years old. The sheer size of this demographic is significant, but coupled with the lack of institutional opportunities in Iran and this generation’s “ubiquitous access to technology,” things are changing rapidly in the region, according to author, entrepreneur and venture investor Chris Schroeder. “They share this technology to communicate and collaborate with each other,” Schroeder says of young people in Iran and throughout the MENA. Although, this instant communication is already also changing the way we think of the larger global economic landscape, Schroeder tells Craig. Considering people living...

There has lately been a flurry of name changes in the UAE banking industry. First Gulf Bank has become FGB; National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah is now just RAKBank and Noor Islamic Bank is Noor Bank. But the trend goes beyond just UAE banks. The international real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle rebranded to JLL and the audit firm Ernst & Young now goes by EY. The trend – not a fad, but here to stay – is a result of the dual forces of globalisation and digitisation, according to Charles Doyle, JLL’s chief marketing and communications officer, who directed the rebrand. As the company expanded internationally – it is now present in 75 markets – the original name seemed too westernised. “It’s a very western-conceived idea to have founders’ names layered one after another because the origins were in private partnerships,” he explains. Moreover, some countries had pronunciation problems. And a short name can be more visually striking. Mr Doyle’s Chinese, Turkish, Russian and Spanish c...

With US$25 million in hand, the Silicon Valley venture capital fund Fenox is scouting for investment targets among MENA start-ups. Based in San Jose, California, Fenox plans to spend the $25m in the region over the next 10 years. “Now there is a lot interest around seed start-ups but the challenge here in the Gulf region is that there are not a lot of home-grown developers,” said Brent Traidman, a general partner at Fenox Venture Capital. “You need to [attract] them [from abroad] and keep them here for the long term.” He was speaking on the sidelines of the demo day for investors from start-ups at DP Word’s Turn8 incubator on Saturday. It was the programme’s second round of incubation since it started last year. After 120 days at the accelerator with a seed funding of $30,000 for each, the five tech start-ups from the UAE, Australia, India, Georgia and Egypt pitched for investments between $250,000 and $370,000. About 18 investors turned up to hear the 15-minute pitches. The US ven...

GCC companies dominated Forbes' list of top 500 companies in the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia's SABIC in the lead with USD 50 billion in revenues and Saudi Telecom coming in second place. A total of 11 countries are represented in the list with combined revenues of USD 383.67 billion and net profits at USD 71.68 billion as of the end of December 2013, Forbes MENA said. "These figures equate to year-on-year increases of 12% and 16.2%, respectively, while aggregated total assets grew 19% to reach a sizable USD 2.64 trillion," it said in a press release issued on Thursday. Featuring only publicly-listed companies, the Top 500 Companies in the Arab World was based on disclosed financial statements for 2013, collated from stock markets across the region. Criteria considered when producing the list include total revenue, net profits, total assets, and market capitalization. The top 10 included four entries from Saudi Arabia, three from the UAE, two from Qatar and one f...

The MENA is faced with major strategic issues related to limiting weapons of mass destruction, experts said at a recent conference in Washington. And in an increasingly globalized world, preventing the illicit trade of such weapons will become even more difficult. “Iran’s nuclear program and the conflict in Syria, especially in light of the use of WMD, in many cases dominate and define the security dialogue in the Middle East,” said Johan Bergenas, an Abu Dhabi security expert and deputy director of the Managing Across Boundaries Initiative at the Stimson Centre think tank. “There are, however, other important challenges that deserve attention, including the illicit diversion of WMD materials and technology in light of emerging civilian nuclear energy programs in the region.” Mr Bergenas was speaking ahead of a workshop in Washington on weapons of mass destruction and strategic stability. “The UAE, Turkey and Jordan are considered some of the global frontrunners most likely to succ...

Saudi Arabia’s government and one of the country’s biggest banks plan to start a venture capital fund of up to 1 billion riyals ($270 million) to invest in new technology companies. Riyad Capital, the investment banking arm of Riyad Bank, will manage the fund, while Saudi Technology Development and Investment Co., a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, will provide seed capital, according to Adel al-Ateeq, head of asset management at Riyad Capital. The venture, which may make its first investment before the end of the year, will target the advanced materials, sustainable energy and information, communication and technology industries, Ateeq said in an interview in Dubai on June 1. The fund intends to capitalize on interest in developing new industrial materials from companies like Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world’s largest petrochemical maker by market value, and the country’s $109 billion spending on solar energy. Economic expansion in Saudi Arabia is forecast to accel...

As conflagration centered on Iraq evolves, it’s understandable that the surrounding analytical noise overwhelmingly prioritizes matters of military manoeuvres, political history and foreign policy, with much of that relating to past conflicts, sectarian struggles and Western involvement. Such issues run deep and are mired in complication and a multitude of challenging interpretations. Economic topics seem very secondary by comparison, although inevitably the impact on the oil market has ramifications locally, in terms of the disruption to production and the accrual of earnings to national and other segments, besides its obvious relevance to a world economy still treading uncertainly back towards some pale imitation of normality. Researchers, though, often draw attention to the importance of promoting convincing means of sustainable economic growth, as the conduit for absorbing the attentions of youthful cohorts in society who otherwise may be drawn outside mainstream, everyday acti...

Plans to turn Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall, into a luxury hotel have attracted MENA buyers. Sovereign wealth funds from Kuwait and Qatar are in talks with a London developer over the acquisition of the original Scotland Yard headquarters, which is being transformed into a £10,000-a-night luxury hotel. The Galliard Group confirmed to The Telegraph that its chief executive, Stephen Conway, has met individuals from the MENA over the last few months, who have shown interest in buying the historic building once construction has been completed in 2016, thought to be worth £200m. “We are currently in discussions with representatives of sovereign wealth funds and ultra high net worth, private investors from the Gulf states, including Qatar and Kuwait. The Gulf investors see Whitehall buildings such as great Scotland Yard as AAA investments that will grow in value over the long term and are a good diversification away from their traditional oil and gas sector holdings,” said Mr Conway. “W...

Saudi Arabia has registered the MENA’s highest e-commerce growth rate in Q1 2014, according to the latest analysis by Visa. The kingdom saw an estimated 43 percent overall e-commerce growth, comparing 2013 and 2014 data, the retail electronic payments network’s study revealed. The Q1 2014 growth was driven by increases in both domestic and cross-border e-commerce, which saw a 67 percent and 36 percent growth over the same period last year, respectively. Emerging as the leading categories for spending were general department store and airline transactions, followed by travel agencies, financial services and fashion retail.Visa attributes this significant increase to the growing credit and debit card penetration in the Middle East region. The total number of Visa cards in circulation in Saudi Arabia was 11,367,834 at the end of 2013, marking a 13 percent growth since 2012, with 10,037,658 cards being circulated in the kingdom. Ahmed Gaber, country manager for Saudi Arabia at Visa, sa...

New applications of video technology will improve services in education, healthcare, and the government, says Tarek Ghoul, Cisco’s general manager for the Gulf and Levant.Whichever way you look at it, the sheer scope of video technology and its current application potential is breathtaking, particularly when it comes to the collaborative benefits it can deliver in fields like education, healthcare, and government services. Encouragingly, the MENA is ideally placed to tap into this new era of visual empowerment, given the projected global growth of mobile video traffic, which will account for 69 per cent of total mobile data traffic by 2018. Mobile video traffic will increase 14-fold from by 2018 and will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application category. Today, technology is making it easier to connect and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers from any location and reliable, high-quality, interoperable video—as opposed to video that’s webcam-based, unre...

It is true that Algerians are developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem quite late compared to its neighbors. And it is hard to think of an Algerian startup or web-based company, successful or not. According to Yasmine Bouchène, an Algerian journalist specialized in startups and founder of media site AlHubeco, the only company that resembles a startup in Algeria is Ouedkniss, a classifieds website, and the only mobile services are media apps. Yet, despite the slow implementation of 3G and a expensive and hard to get broadband Internet, an increasing number of Algerians are using the internet, especially dating websites, classifieds platforms, and online media (of varying quality), and some Algerians are now working on interesting startup projects. So, where does this lack of innovation motivation come from, and what can we do to help overcome the challenges? The economy in general is lagging behind. The civil war, whose outbreak in 1991 signaled the beginning of a dark period in Alge...

Governments and extremist groups have spent decades trying to stem the rising tide of women’s education and equal rights in the MENA. From the shooting of Malala Yousafzai by the Taliban in Pakistan to the recent abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria, some severe measures have been taken to prevent what extremists see as the “Westernization” of Middle Eastern culture. Governments are somewhat less violent in their oppression of women, but the oppression exists nonetheless. Most of the world has come to recognize that women in the MENA are treated as second-class citizens, but that is slowly changing. Women are not being given equal rights to men yet, and they are often required to follow a different set of laws based on patriarchal views. Still, the gradual progress is there. Recently in Saudi Arabia, a movement was begun to allow physical education in girls’ government schools. Protesters flocked to Riyadh, shouting down the measure as an insult to the Prophet...

Institute of Management Accountants, one of the world's leading associations represented the management accounting profession, highlighted the urgent need to tackle the MENA's financial competency gap, which is acting as a brake on the region's economic development. Speaking during a visit to the MENA, Jeff Thomson, CMA, CAE, IMA's president and CEO, said there is a growing gap between the demands of the business world and the financial skills and education levels of the workforce. This gap needs to be addressed through certification and a seamless transition between education and on-the-job duties. Thomson said: "The stature of the accounting and finance profession has grown tremendously in the MENA in recent years but there is still a shortfall in the number of people able to serve the increasingly complex financial requirements of local business. An increased emphasis on professional certifications, including the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) is cer...

Long a key feature of the MENA bond market, the Gulf premium is fading and may vanish entirely as soon as this year if the region continues to gain ground as a mainstream investment destination. The premium is the markup that issuers in the Gulf have to pay over developed-country issuers when they sell similarly rated paper. It has existed since the birth of a significant flow of international bonds from the Gulf about a decade ago. It is attributed to a range of factors, especially the geopolitical uncertainties, unpredictable government policies, poor information disclosure and shaky corporate governance standards in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. And in the past, the premium was substantial; a decade ago, a highly rated issuer in an oil-rich economy such as Abu Dhabi or Qatar might expect to pay a premium of 200 or 300 basis points. But it has been narrowing steadily over the past couple of years as the Gulf’s bond market has deepened and foreign portfolio investors’ c...

At the intersection of technology and capital, entrepreneurs in the MENA are hoping that Bitcoin will prove the next big thing. David El Achkar, a former McKinsey employee who has started Yellow, a company that provides Bitcoin payment products to firms in the MENA, has a number of bright ideas about how to turn Bitcoin into a fully-fledged currency regime. He thinks Bitcoin’s potential to change how people interact is comparable to the invention of the internet. “It’s like pre and post-internet times. Bitcoin as a technology … allows anyone to innovate … with value. We now have this platform that enables completely permissionless value transfer. Which is very exciting.” Mr El Achkar sees Bitcoin disrupting existing industries in remittances, retail banking and the media. “Right now, we’re paying hefty fees to send money … we’re paying for [banks’] infrastructure … which includes a lot of inefficiencies,” he said. Tarik Kaddoumi, a co-founder of Umbrellab, which provides Bitcoin pa...

When Yahoo! acquired Arabic internet portal Maktoob.com in 2009 for $165 million USD, expectations ran high among the Arab world’s tech entrepreneurs that the regional startup scene would be inundated with cash-rich suitors. Instead, the exit market seemed to dry up in the midst of the Arab uprisings. But this past March, Souq.com, promoted as the Arab world’s Amazon.com, received $75 million USD in funding from South African media firm Naspers, putting the Middle Eastern online retailer’s valuation at half-a-billion dollars. The investment is the latest in a string of venture capital (VC) deals finding their way to support the developing e-commerce market in the Arab world. Other online Arab retailers that have won funding include fashion retailer Namshi.com, discount retailer MarkaVIP.com, travel site Triperna.com, and coupon retailer Cobone.com. In 2013, MIH, a subsidiary of Naspers, acquired a majority stake in Dubizzle.com, considered the biggest classified advertising site in...

The Middle East's ICT landscape has been put under the microscope by the World Economic Forum (WEF), with new rankings showing which countries are putting IT to best effect in the region. In the Middle East, Qatar (23rd) and the UAE (24th) leading the Arab World. "The MENA region has been one of the most active in the world in terms of investing in ICT," Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and one of the editors of the report, told ZDNet. "In fact, some countries such as Qatar and UAE perform very well on a global basis," he said, "with scores on the Networked Readiness Index much higher than many emerging markets in Asia and Latin America." The index looks at the performance of 148 economies in using ICT to improve their country's competitiveness and wellbeing. As a result of this ICT investment — coupled with continued efforts "to improve ICT uptake and integrate ICTs bett...

MENA investors will deploy US$180 billion in commercial property markets outside the region over the next decade, with the majority of that stemming from sovereign wealth funds, according to research by CBRE, the property adviser. Several billion dollars of foreign capital is also sitting on the sidelines eager to invest in the MENA, mainly the UAE, but a lack of buying opportunities and other restrictions are holding back the flows. “The ‘buy and hold’ strategy adopted by many MENA investors within their home region and the resultant lack of deal flow opportunities leaves much unsatisfied demand here,” said Nick Maclean, the managing director at CBRE Middle East. “Coupled with increased confidence in global markets and the need for diversification, overseas investment has grown strongly. This trend is set to continue and with new sources of MENA capital, particularly from Saudi [Arabia], set to enter the market over the next couple of years, the demand for real estate is increasin...

Islamic banking industry has a huge opportunity in financing small business. Dubai: A large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are starved of funding because they have no access to both conventional and Islamic bank financing, according to International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group focused on the private sector. According to a recent IFC study on Islamic banking opportunities across small and medium enterprises in MENA there is potential gap of up to $13.2 billion for Islamic SME financing across nine countries in the region. “This is due to the fact that several un-served and underserved SMEs do not borrow from conventional banks, owing to religious reasons. This potential is a “new to bank” funding opportunity, which is still untapped, as banks and other financial institutions lack adequate strategic focus on this segment to offer Sharia-compliant products,” said Mouayed Makhlouf, Regional ...

A new survey finds that a quarter of finance professionals said that lack of career progression was one of the main reasons for changing jobs. Around 53 per cent of finance professionals in the Middle East are on lookout for a new job, according to a survey by eFinancial Careers. A large part of the professionals (40 per cent) polled also said that they are not actively looking for a job but they would be open to opportunities while seven per cent said that they are not interested in changing jobs at all. Around 25 per cent of the respondents cited lack of career progression as a trigger to change jobs while nine per cent of them blamed compensation levels. “There is a clear gap between expectations and reality. Over four in 10 (43 per cent) of those actively looking for a job had originally accepted their current role based upon career prospects,” said James Bennett, global managing director of eFinancialCareers. “Yet a quarter says the lack of career progression triggered their d...

Some of the fastest growing companies from across the Middle East and North Africa are headed home with rekindled ambition and fattened address books after meeting some of the biggest names in US tech. Nineteen companies participated last week in what is being described as the first-ever immersion program designed to bridge the Arab World and Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs got to visit some of the world's top tech firms, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, and were offered one-on-one opportunities to tap would-be mentors for advice and even seek out potential investors. The weeklong program was organized by the MIT Enterprise Forum's Pan Arab chapter and sponsored by Saudi Arabia's Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives. Building on the Arab startup competitions MITEF has been running across the Middle East for the past eight years, the program aims to give young entrepreneurs the boost they need to take their projects to the next level. For the very first time w...

Middle Eastern investors are expected to spend $180 billion on buying commercial property outside their own region over the next 10 years, according to new research from property advisor CBRE. A significant chunk of that investment – roughly $130-$140 billion – is expected to come from regional sovereign wealth funds, while investors, property companies and developers will account for the remaining amount, said CBRE. Europe is the preferred target and is expected to receive 80 per cent of the $180 billion (around $145 billion) as it offers “diversification, cultural acceptance, high liquidity and market transparency,” said the report. While close to $85 billion will flow into the UK, $60 billion will be invested in continental Europe, with France, Germany, Italy and Spain among the key target markets. Iryna Pylypchuk, EMEA Research and Consulting, CBRE, said: “Culture, openness and favorable taxation laws are significant push factors for Middle Eastern buyers towards Europe, and th...

The GCC luxury goods market has continued to grow fast, at a rate of five to eight per cent, despite regional woes, according to a study. The market has been mainly driven by tourism growth (nine to 10 per cent) while the resident market has been growing but at a slower rate, according to Bain & Company’s Global Luxury Goods Worldwide study. “GCC nationals and residents continue to buy a large share of their luxury goods abroad to experience their favourite brands in their native environment. As GCC retailers continuously enhance the customer experience in-store, they may succeed in capturing this latent demand,” said Cyrille Fabre, Bain & Company partner, who leads the Retail & Consumer Products practice for the Middle East. In a report last year, Bain stated that Dubai commands around 30 per cent of the Middle East luxury market and around 60 per cent of the UAE’s luxury market. The Dubai Mall accounted for around 50 per cent of Dubai’s luxury purchases. Globally, growt...