MAF still looking at Dunia

|By TAP Staff| Majid Al Futtaim Holding is weighing an offer to acquire Abu Dhabi consumer finance firm Dunia Finance, Chief Executive Officer Alain Bejjani said in an interiew.

“Dunia is an opportunity that was presented to us, so we are looking at it,” Bejjani said, but clarified that the company has not yet decided on a formal bid. Dunia’s shareholders, including Mubadala Development Co. and a unit of Temasek Holdings Pte, hired Morgan Stanley to explore a sale, people with knowledge of the matter said in July.

Buying privately owned Dunia would be a strategic fit for Majid Al Futtaim’s finance unit,  he said.  In 2013 the company bought Carrefour’s 25 percent stake in its Middle East joint venture for 530 million euros, giving it full control of the Carrefour stores across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.