Middle Eastern shopping center developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) has decided to suspend plans to divest its district cooling assets, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Dubai’s MAF, which did not respond to a request for comment, hired HSBC in 2020 to advise it on the potential sale of cooling plants linked to its hotels and shopping malls, which sources said could yield around 500 million dirhams ($136 million).
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It was not immediately clear why the MAF decided to suspend its plans.
MAF was founded by Emirati businessman Majid Al Futtaim, whose death late last year was announced by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who paid tribute to him as one of the pioneers of the emirate.
Al Futtaim was ranked the third richest Arab businessman by Forbes magazine in 2021 with a family fortune of $3.6 billion. Since his death, MAF has gone through the process of inheritance to his heirs and now has nine shareholders, group chief executive Alain Bejjani told Reuters in August.
District cooling installations, which supply chilled water through insulated pipes to cool offices, industrial and residential buildings, have been developed as a more economical and environmentally friendly alternative to air conditioning.
The sale of the business was part of a business strategy by MAF to divest what it considered a non-core asset and to bolster liquidity following the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and restrictions in the UAE and around other countries in which it operates.
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