The UAE’s Majid al-Futtaim has awarded a $400m contract to build its Mall of Egypt project, located at 6 October city outside Cairo, to a joint venture of the local Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and Belgium’s Besix Construction .

The joint venture beat competition from a joint venture of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and the local Hassan Allam Sons, the other shortlisted consortium, to win the construction deal. Negotiations had been ongoing with bidders since January.

The Mall of Egypt will cover a total area of 160,000 square metres and is scheduled to contain 380 shops when completed. One of the main attractions of the proposed mall will be an indoor ski slope, similar to the Ski Dubai component in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, another MAF development.

In addition to the indoor ski facility, the mall will contain a 17-screen cinema complex, food court and other leisure amenities. The UK-based architecture firm RTKL is designing the shopping development.

Construction work is scheduled to begin after the final building permit is attained, which is expected to be before the end of 2012.