Dubai’s Majid al-Futtaim expects the cost recovery period for its latest mall project in Egypt to not exceed nine years, according to the company’s chief executive Alain Bejani.

Bejani told reporters at Mall of Egypt’s official opening on 2 March that the cost recovery period is expected to be between eight to nine years.

The Mall of Egypt, located in Cairo’s western suburb of 6^th October City, is made up of approximately 350 outlets and 50 dining units, including an indoor ski slope similar to Ski Dubai at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.

The mall has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 165,000 square metres.

The $722m mall was built by a joint venture of the local Orascom Construction and Belgium’s Besix Construct.

MAF is also developing the Almaza City Centre mall in an east Cairo suburb. A joint venture of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and the local Hassan Allam Construction was awarded the contract to build the mall last year.

The £E4bn ($510m) development will be built in Heliopolis on the north eastern quadrant of the junction between the Cairo-Suez Road and Nasr Road.

It will have 103,455 square metres of retail space with a 13,040 sq m Carrefour supermarket, a food court, 16-screen Vox cinema, a 1,800 sq m Magic Planet family entertainment centre and 4,000 parking spaces.

The mall is scheduled to open by the first quarter of 2019 and is expected to create 22,000 direct and 14,000 indirect job opportunities.

Egypt’s large population makes the country a good destination for retail projects. Despite rising costs due to inflation caused by a currency flotation in November 2016, Egypt continues to boast a large middle class as retail continues to be one of the country’s strongest growth areas.