Prominent Emirati businessman Majid Al Futtaim dies | Business and Economy News

Dubai ruler hails Majid Al Futtaim as one of the sheikhdom’s ‘most important merchants’.

Emirati billionaire Majid Al Futtaim, who rose from working as a bank clerk to creating an eponymous business empire, has died.

Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced Al Futtaim’s death in a post on Twitter on Friday, praising him as one of the sheikhdom’s “most important merchants”.

“May God have mercy on our brother Majid Al Futtaim, the creative businessman, and one of Dubai’s most important merchants and senior men,” said Al Maktoum.

“His last decision was to hire 3,000 citizens. May God have mercy on him.”

Neither the cause behind his death nor his age were announced.

However, prayers for him and his family had circulated on social media in recent days.

Al Futtaim founded Majid Al Futtaim Holding in 1992. It expanded across the Middle East with malls and other ventures and runs more than 300 Carrefour supermarkets and hypermarkets across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Its showpiece mall, the Mall of the Emirates, is a major attraction in Dubai.

In total, Al Futtaim owns and operates 27 shopping malls, 13 hotels and four integrated city projects, in addition to many projects under construction, according to Emirati media.

Forbes estimated Al Futtaim’s net worth to be more than $4bn.