🕶️ Regional giant Magrabi Retail will acquire 51% of homegrown optical group Baraka Optics, according to a joint statement (pdf). The transaction will bring together two of the country’s biggest eyewear family businesses under a single corporate umbrella, with roughly 50 stores nationwide, Baraka Optics Chairman and CEO Ahmed Ragab tells EnterpriseAM. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Baraka Optics Group will be integrated into Magrabi Retail after the transaction is closed. Magrabi — based in Dubai despite launching in Cairo in 1927 — will take over day-to-day management, while Baraka Optics Group’s current shareholders will retain board representation and strategic involvement, according to the statement.

What’s next? Ragab will step down as CEO but keep his role as chairman, as Baraka retains two of the board’s five seats, while day-to-day operational control transitions fully to Magrabi’s platform under Magrabi CEO Yasser Taher.

No one is exiting the business. “We’re very clear that we don’t want a full exit because we’re not liquefying our investments; we’re creating something … we’re growing more,” Ragab tells us. “We had the option to sell 100%, but we refused [because] we see the upside and the potential [of this partnership],” he says.

The agreement includes structured put-and-call options mapped out for 2028 and 2030 to give the family ultimate optionality if Magrabi decides to track toward a regional IPO. If a public listing occurs within the next three years, Baraka's 49% stake will be swapped up to the regional holding company level in Dubai.

Maximizing valuation? The move follows Magrabi’s merger with Dubai-based Rivoli Vision in September 2024 and its acquisition of Kuwait’s Kefan Optics in May of last year, confirming a strategy to consolidate the company’s position regionally ahead of a potential IPO, while also keeping their brand name. Magrabi currently operates over 350 stores across the GCC and Egypt, with Saudi Arabia as its biggest market.

Overlapping stores will stay open. Ragab said the combined entity doesn’t plan on shutting down any locations despite significant overlap in high-end regional malls like Mall of Egypt, Cairo Festival City, and Mall of Arabia. “We saw this combination as complementary… rather than clashing,” Ragab tells us, noting that they will continue to expand operations and open more stores together.

Operational logic beats optics: Don’t expect to see Baraka-branded stores popping up across the GCC anytime soon just for the sake of global optics. “Whatever makes sense commercially, we'll do,” Ragab says. “I don't have this ego that I want to open anything outside [of Egypt].” Instead, the immediate runway will prioritize growth here at home. “With this new structure, what would have been reached in 10 years can be reached in two,” he adds.

The perimeters of the play only cover optics: Baraka runs a total of 24 stores across segments (including Baraka-branded stores, C&CO and People), while Magrabi operates around 30 stores across the country, Ragab tells us. Baraka's budget mono-brand concept, JooJ, which Ragab freely admits is a model that “doesn't work in the eyewear [sector],” is excluded from the agreement. Baraka’s broader retail fashion and F&B portfolio is also excluded.

The move is still subject to customary regulatory approvals, including Egypt’s competition watchdog. “There is a very thin line between competition and cooperation, and this is what the market needs,” Ragab says.