As owner of the Al Futtaim Group, Abdulla initially made his fortune selling cars in the UAE, before making the move into retail and real estate. The company has spent more than $2bn to build Dubai’s Festival City, which includes hotels, offices, homes, retail outlets and a golf course.
The popular destination is set to make headlines this year with news it has signed an agreement with Laservision Mega Media for the creation of a “mega spectacular” at the site.
Work on the attraction, believed to be a water and lights show similar to the Dubai Fountain near Burj Khalifa, started in 2015 and will be unveiled later this year as part of a $400m refurbishment of the Festival City. The company claims the new addition to Dubai’s entertainment scene will be “a first-to-market, must-see, world-class waterfront experience that will excite and engage our visitors.”
He is also in the process of opening up a Festival City in Cairo. Al Futtaim operates through more than 65 companies across sectors as diverse as commerce, industry and services, and employs in excess of 20,000 people across the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Singapore and Europe.
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