Berlin-based e-commerce incubator, Rocket Internet announced today that it has sold 51% of Namshi, the Middle Eastern version of Amazon, to Emaar for $151 million.
The deal with Emaar sets a competitive landscape against Amazon, which is also currently working on grabbing more revenue and customers within the region through its acquisition of Souq.
Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar said: “The acquisition of a majority stake in Namshi underlines our digital-driven strategy to leverage the growing e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa region. Namshi offers a perfect fit for Emaar Malls in accelerating its focus on multichannel retailing, and creating long-term value for its stakeholders.”
Hosam Arab, MD of Namshi expressed his excitement and confidence in this new deal saying: “We are very excited to welcome Emaar Malls as our majority shareholder. We are confident that this partnership will unlock further opportunities and help accelerate the development of Namshi for the benefit of our customers. We would like to congratulate and thank our team for their tireless efforts in making Namshi the Middle East’s premier fashion ecommerce destination and we look forward to continuing this journey together with Emaar Malls and GFG”
For more information about the deal, read here.