ONLINE RETAILER
Emaar’s Souq.com bid a challenge to Amazon
Amazon.com mum on the $800m offer by Dubai’s Emaar Malls for Middle Eastern online retailer Souq.com
Dubai — Dubai’s Emaar Malls, operator of glitzy Middle East shopping centres, has made an $800m offer for regional online retailer Souq.com, setting up a potential bidding war with Amazon.com. Reuters reported last week that Amazon had agreed in principle to buy Souq.com. The US e-commerce giant declined to comment, and Souq.com did not respond to e-mailed comment requests. The Emaar Malls bid had so far not been accepted by Souq.com’s shareholders, the company said in a bourse statement on Monday. SA’s Naspers, which told Reuters it held a 36.4% stake in Souq.com, declined to comment. Tiger Global Management also has a stake in Souq.com. The Emaar Malls bid is the latest move by Dubai billionaire Mohammed Alabbar, who chairs Dubai’s largest publicly listed developer Emaar Properties. Emaar Malls is the retail unit of Emaar Properties. Alabbar in 2016 raised $1bn from regional investors, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to set up his own Middle East e-commerce firm N...
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