His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai has appointed His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum to temporarily oversee Dubai Holding and Meraas, replacing Abdulla Al Habbai.

The move is part of a fresh strategy to explore new expansion prospects for both groups, and identify further opportunities to maximise growth by leveraging their diverse assets and investment portfolios. The appointment seeks to further consolidate the strong brand profile and leading position of the two groups both in the Arab world and globally. The move is also aligned with Dubai’s evolving growth strategy that seeks to constantly create new value through innovation. 

Established in 2004, Dubai Holding develops and manages an extensive portfolio of companies focused on investments, financial services, real estate, specialised business parks, telecommunications and hospitality.  Dubai Holding has played an instrumental role in Dubai’s diversification programme across multiple industries, and is at the frontlines of Dubai’s strategy to build a sustainable, innovation-driven economy in line with the UAE Government’s Vision 2021. 

Dubai Holding delivered a robust operational performance in the first half of 2019 with multiple successes and achievements that support the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The Group foresees strong growth over the next five years and continued financial success, driven by recurring revenue assets and new projects. Dubai Holding is set to play an important role in the staging of Expo 2020 Dubai through its hospitality and real estate offerings, which is set to further boost the Group’s performance. The Group's operations and investments span across 10 countries in the region and around the world. Subsidiary companies, including Jumeirah Group, TECOM Group, Dubai Properties, Dubai Asset Management, Arab Media Group, and Dubai Retail employ around 20,000 employees.

One of Dubai’s most successful conglomerates, Meraas aims to enhance the emirate’s cityscape with a human-centric approach to developing assets in the real estate, tourism, hospitality, F&B, retail, leisure and entertainment, technology, maritime, and healthcare sectors. Meraas has a mission of building a creative urban culture where thriving communities can take root. 

Among its investments are some of the most admired real-estate properties in premium locations, such as Bluewaters Residences, Bvlgari Residences, Cherrywoods, City Walk Residences, Nikki Beach Residences, Port de La Mer Residences, Villa Amalfi, and Zabeel Saray Royal Residence. The company’s portfolio comprises over 80 million square feet of total developed land, more than 3,500 homes, 2,000 retail units, and 15 landmark destinations, including Al Seef, Bluewaters, Boxpark, City Walk, Dubai Harbour, Jumeira Bay, Kite Beach, La Mer, Last Exit, Pearl Jumeira, The Beach and The Outlet Village.