DUBAI: Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), one of the GCC's largest privately held business groups, is reshaping its overseas retail portfolio, exiting Pakistan and Iraq while grappling with a revenue decline in Saudi Arabia, even as its FY25 net profit surged 41 per cent to AED3.6 billion.
The portfolio changes provide a fresh lens on the financial performance of a group whose interests extend far beyond grocery retail. Majid Al Futtaim operates across shopping malls, communities, retail, entertainment and lifestyle businesses across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, making its strategy relevant well beyond the markets in which it operates.
The group had revenue of AED35.9 billion and total assets of AED71 billion in 2025.
The immediate trigger for revisiting the group's FY25 accounts is its recent reshaping of grocery retail, including the rollout of its home-grown HyperMax brand in markets where the Carrefour name has been withdrawn. But the more significant story in the accounts is the group's broader portfolio pruning.
Exiting two markets
MAF has classified its Pakistan and Iraq retail operations as assets held for sale, effectively putting the two markets on the exit route.
The two businesses together generated about AED724 million in revenue in FY25, but recorded a combined negative net operating profit after tax (NOPAT) of about AED28 million. Pakistan generated revenue of AED479 million and a negative NOPAT of AED9 million, while Iraq contributed AED245 million of revenue and a negative NOPAT of AED19 million.
The businesses classified for sale had assets of about AED268 million against liabilities of AED296 million, leaving net liabilities of roughly AED28 million.
The exits therefore represent more than a geographic reshuffle. They remove two operations that were generating revenue but failing to generate positive operating returns.
That is significant for a group that has increasingly emphasised disciplined capital allocation as it seeks to concentrate on markets and businesses capable of delivering stronger returns.
Saudi presents bigger question
The more interesting test of that strategy, however, is Saudi Arabia. Unlike Pakistan and Iraq, Saudi Arabia is not a small market that can simply be written off as part of portfolio clean-up. It is a major market for MAF and remains an important part of the group's regional retail and lifestyle ambitions.
Yet Saudi revenue fell to about AED2.56 billion in 2025 from AED2.95 billion, a decline of roughly 13 per cent. The operating picture was somewhat better than the revenue number suggested. NOPAT improved to a negative AED129 million from a negative AED143 million. But the business remained loss-making.
That makes Saudi a more nuanced story than the exits of Pakistan and Iraq: MAF has reduced its loss, but has not yet turned the market profitable, while revenue has contracted sharply.
The contrast is revealing. The group is exiting smaller loss-making markets while continuing to operate and invest in a much larger market where the economics are still being repaired.
Record profit, but what is driving it?
The portfolio restructuring comes against a backdrop of what MAF describes as its strongest financial performance to date.
Group revenue increased 6 per cent to AED35.9 billion in 2025, while EBITDA rose 10 per cent to AED5.1 billion, crossing AED5 billion for the first time. Net profit increased 41 per cent to AED3.6 billion. But the composition of that profit growth is worth examining.
MAF reported net profit of AED3.6 billion including valuation gains, while net profit excluding valuation gains rose even faster, by 48 per cent to AED2.3 billion.
The distinction matters because the group's property portfolio remains a major component of its business model. Its properties business spans shopping malls, hotels and residential developments, while the group continues to invest heavily in destination assets. MAF's mall portfolio includes assets such as Mall of the Emirates and City Centre properties across the region.
The FY25 accounts recorded a net valuation gain on land and buildings of about AED1.3 billion, up from roughly AED1 billion a year earlier.
That does not mean the 41-per-cent profit growth was simply a property revaluation story. The underlying business improved materially: EBITDA rose 10 per cent and MAF generated AED3.5 billion in free cash flow, while net debt fell 15 per cent to AED11.9 billion.
The more useful conclusion is that MAF's headline earnings growth combines genuine operating improvement with significant gains from its property portfolio.
A portfolio being reshaped
Taken together, the numbers suggest a group becoming more selective about where it deploys capital.
Pakistan and Iraq are being put up for sale after failing to produce positive operating returns. Saudi Arabia remains a much more consequential challenge, with revenue falling despite an improvement in its operating loss. Meanwhile, the group is strengthening its UAE core, where revenue rose 11 per cent to more than AED22 billion, while its property development business grew strongly.
The recent HyperMax rollout therefore looks less important as a standalone retail-brand story than as a visible sign of that wider reshaping. MAF has launched the brand in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait as part of a broader effort to diversify its grocery portfolio and build its own retail propositions.
For a GCC conglomerate with a AED35.9-billion revenue base, the significance lies not simply in which supermarket brand appears on its stores, but in which countries MAF chooses to stay in, which ones it chooses to leave and where its profits ultimately come from.
That makes the FY25 accounts more than a delayed results story: they offer a snapshot of how one of the Gulf's largest diversified private business groups is pruning its international exposure while leaning on its stronger core markets and property assets.
