Dubai-based developer Al-Futtaim is seeking land in Egypt for a development similar to its $3.7 billion Cairo Festival City project on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, a company executive said.

"We are actively looking for another site to do another Festival City," Philip Evans, director of commercial and retail leasing for Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate, told Reuters.

The Cairo Festival City development was being built at an investment cost of about 20 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.7 billion), the company said in a statement in October.
   

Evans said he did not have a time frame for acquiring new land, but said a new project would be similar to Festival City, a commercial and residential development in the suburb of New Cairo.

"If we found the right site tomorrow, we would buy the right site tomorrow. It is just a question of the right site becoming available," Evans said, adding that the scope of the project would depend on what land is available.

Al-Futtaim Real Estate is the construction and property management wing of the UAE's Al-Futtaim Group. Al-Futtaim is behind the multi-billion dollar Dubai Festival City and has discussed similar developments in Morocco, Libya and Qatar.

The firm expects to complete Cairo Festival City in 2015, a company statement said. That site's residential villas will go on sale in early November this year and its central commercial area will open in 2012, executives said.

Evans said Egypt had "massive potential" and added: "The fundamental economics are good, and the forecasts are extremely good." -Reuters