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Emaar Malls missed out on a bid to buy Souq<\/a> when Amazon picked up<\/a> the Dubai-based online retailer for about $650 million in March. Now, the retailing giant of the Middle East is making another acquisition to step up its game in e-commerce. Today Rocket Internet \u2014 the Berlin-based e-commerce incubator \u2014 announced<\/a> that it has sold 51 percent of Namshi<\/a>, its Middle Eastern Amazon clone, to Emaar for $151 million.<\/p>\n The deal sets up an interesting competitive landscape in the region, pitting Emaar, the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the Middle East operating properties like the Dubai Mall, against Amazon, which is now moving into grabbing more revenue and customers in the region via its new acquisition of Souq.<\/p>\n Emaar Malls has long been looking to ramp up its presence on the web and\u00a0said that it will use the new asset to expand its logistics and expand more brands to selling online.<\/p>\n This has also led its head, chairman Mohamed Alabbar, to make a number of other investments in recent months, such as taking a stake in logistics company Aramex<\/a>; and\u00a0set up plans for\u00a0building a rival to Souq called Noon<\/a>.\u00a0Noon has yet to launch, and it\u2019s not clear if Namshi will replace, complement, or operate completely separately from it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe acquisition of a majority stake in Namshi underlines our digital-driven strategy to leverage the growing e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa region,\u201d said Alabbar, in a statement. \u201cNamshi offers a perfect fit for Emaar Malls in accelerating its focus on multi-channel retailing, and creating long-term value for its stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n Rocket Internet said that it would continue to hold the remaining 49 percent as part of its larger Global Fashion Group operation \u2014 an entity it created back in 2014<\/a> to consolidate several\u00a0of its many emerging market brands: Dafiti in South America, LaModa in Russia, The Iconic in Australia\/New Zealand, and Zalora in South East Asia.<\/p>\n At its loftiest\u00a0point, the GFG was valued at over $3 billion, but in 2016 it saw a massive markdown<\/a> on that to around $1 billion. Today\u2019s deal values Namshi at just over $300 million. The company said that it was profitable in 2016 on revenues of 555 million UAE Dirham, equivalent to $151 million \u2014 the same as the stake Emaar is taking today.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very excited to welcome Emaar Malls as our majority shareholder,\u201d said\u00a0Hosam Arab, MD of Namshi. \u201cWe are confident that this partnership will unlock further opportunities and help accelerate the development of Namshi for the benefit of our customers. We would like to congratulate and thank our team for their tireless efforts in making Namshi the Middle East\u2019s premier fashion ecommerce destination and we look forward to continuing this journey together with Emaar Malls and GFG.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Rocket Internet has been gradually divesting\u00a0some of its holdings in the GFG and other businesses across its\u00a0portfolio. In February, the group agreed to sell a 49 percent stake in Zalora Philippines<\/a> to the Ayala Group, a conglomerate\u00a0in the region. Previous to that, Alibaba took a $1 billion investment in Lazada<\/a>. There are other units in the GFG\u00a0also being sold off, as we\u2019ve previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/dubai-flight-arc-001.jpeg?w=680\")
Emaar Malls missed out on a bid to buy Souq when Amazon picked up the Dubai-based online retailer for about $650 million in March. Now, the retailing giant of the Middle East is making another acquisition to step up its game in e-commerce. Today Rocket Internet — the Berlin-based e-commerce incubator — announced that it has sold 51 percent of Namshi, its Middle Eastern Amazon clone,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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