Arabian Centres eyes 7 new malls in 4 years, GLA of 52%

Logo of Arabian Centres Co.

Arabian Centres Co. (ACC), Saudi Arabia’s leading owner and operator of shopping malls, aims to increase its gross leasable area (GLA) within the next four years by nearly 601,300 square meters. ACC will use the latest sukuk issuance, which was 200% oversubscribed, finance these expansions and new malls across the Kingdom.

The company has two projects, namely Jeddah Park and Khaleej Mall, with GLA of 179,700 sqm, which are expected to be finalized by the end of the year. Accordingly, the total GLA will reach nearly 1.39 million sqm by the end of the year.

Arabian Centres is pursuing a growth strategy to boost its market share, strengthen its foothold in the Saudi retail sector and its leading position in the development, operation and management of shopping malls in the Kingdom’s prime locations. The company is also eying to aggrandize investment returns on the current project portfolio.

Arabian Centres is looking forward to enhancing its long-term expansion strategy and maximize the financial leverage on GLA to boost returns on the current project portfolio. The company also aims to shift its shopping malls to integrated destinations and a one stop shop for its clients.

The following table illustrates the projects expected to be opened in 2021:

Moreover, ACC has five other projects, where it aims to increase the GLA by almost 421,600 sqm by 2024 at an estimated cost of nearly SAR 6.326.8 billion.

Accordingly, ACC will manage and operate 28 malls by 2024 with a GLA of 1.85 million sqm, implying a variation of 52% when compared to 2020.

The following chart illustrates the total number of malls and GLA by the end of 2024:

Key achievements in 2020:

- Opening of cinema theaters. A specialized Saudi company is operating these cinema theaters in 8 malls across Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Jubail, Dhahran and Al-Ahsa.

- Enhancing the company’s position in Riyadh through opening the Nakheel Mall extension in Riyadh.

- Growing the GLA by 12% to 1.2 million sqm. The number of exhibitions exceeded 4,100 in 2020.

- Increasing footfall from 108.7 million visitors in 2019 to 110.7 million visitors in 2020.

Additionally, the number of malls owned by the company increased to 21 by the end of 2020, following the opening of two new centres. The occupancy rate of all malls hit 92.6% in the fiscal year ended March 2020.

GLA increased by 128,200 sqm, or 12% to 1.21 million sqm in 2020, from 1.09 million sqm in 2019. This was driven by the opening of U-Walk – Riyadh with GLA of 63,700 sqm and more than 60 shops, and Nakheel Mall – Dammam with GLA of 62,500 sqm and more than 200 shops.