In April of this year TSC, a Kuwaiti public retailer that is part of the Sultan Center, had signed an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with ADMIC, the owner of the BHV/Geant/Monoprix stores in Lebanon, and this August the handover took place. Sultan Center was founded in 1976 as a family business, owned by the Sultan family, and two years later moved into the retail sector. In 1996 the company went public and listed on the Kuwait stock exchange, part of a plan to expand beyond Kuwait. In 1999 it moved into Oman and in 2003 bought the Safeway stores in Jordan. Lebanon had been part of TSC’s expansion plans right from the start. Indeed, in 1997 the company had begun talks with Solidere about a store in the Beirut Souks project, which is part of the Downtown Beirut reconstruction. But the political instability kept delaying the opening of the Beirut
