Dubai's Emaar Properties expects the listing of its retail unit to occur within months, while it is also preparing its Egyptian unit for an initial public offer in Egypt, Emaar chairman Mohammed Alabbar said on Sunday.

Dubai's largest listed property developer said on Saturday that it planned to list 25 percent of its shopping malls and retail unit in an offer expected to raise between 8 and 9 billion dirhams ($2.18-$2.45 billion).

The timetable for the retail listing "is definitely less than a year. We're hoping within months," Alabbar told Al Arabiya television.

Emaar is in the final stages of discussions with banks on the best way to conduct the listing, he added.

Alabbar did not give details of his plans for the IPO of the fully-owned Egyptian unit, Emaar Misr, which is a major foreign investor in Egypt's real estate sector and claims an investment portfolio of 53 billion Egyptian pounds ($7.6 billion). - Reuters