Global establishes synergy between Al Sawani and Future Kid

Al Sawani and Future Kid entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to join forces for future business development.

The purpose of this MoU is to enable cooperation between Al Sawani and Future Kid for exploring opportunities to set-up new outlets in the GCC. Considering that both the companies are major players in their fields, this MoU will help them in expanding into other's market by leveraging the strong position held by each of them in their respective market.

In today's market, mall developers need unique concepts and an integrated multi brand and multi product model, and this is what the two companies would joint offer.

The Private Equity Group of the Kuwait based asset management company Global had recently announced the completion of the acquisition of a controlling stake in Al Sawani, a Saudi based retailing giant offering clothing apparels and accessories in GCC.

Established in 1976, Al Sawani is a forerunner in regional retail, and is among the first GCC businesses which adopted the franchising model.

Al Sawani currently has 76,000 square meters of retail space spread over 550 outlets spread across 12 regional countries through which it retails its portfolio of 36 international brands of apparel and accessories including Guess, Benetton, Sfera and Esprit.

The company has just completed the capital increase of about $40m with the help of the Private Equity Group to fund the acquisition opportunities that it is exploring in the region.

Future Kid was established to manage, organize, and operate leisure activities for adults and children both indoors and outdoors. Future Kid is in the family entertainment business and has 12 major multi-attraction indoor play-halls amassing 17,500 square meters.

Future Kid expertise comes from an understanding of the needs of the industry's clientele over a decade of operational experience in this sector. The Company had listed its shares on the Kuwait Stock exchange last week.

Mr. Shailesh Dash, Head of Alternative Investments Group declared that "The Private Equity continuously looks for establishing synergy between its portfolio companies and this MoU is another example of the value addition brought in by the group.

He added that this MoU will help both the Companies in expanding beyond their forte and exploring new business development opportunities in the region.

It is worth mentioning that Global Capital Management Ltd. is a 100% subsidiary of Global, which manages Global's private equity funds with over $3bn of assets under management (AUM). The PE Group is one of the largest teams in the MENA with over 40 well qualified professionals comprising of 11 nationalities; providing a 'local' perspective for deals in all target markets. The team has a cumulative work experience of over 200 years ranging from private equity, investment banking, advisory, venture capital, financial research, credit rating and audit across varied sectors. It has recently listed Global MENA Financial Assets Limited (GMFA) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).