DAMAC Properties

DAMAC Properties is an Emirati property development company, based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Founded by Hussain Sajwani, it was listed on the Dubai Financial Market in early 2015. The company was delisted in 2022 after it was taken private again; Sajwani, who retained 72% of all shares, purchased the remaining shares for 2.19 billion AED (595 million USD). The company operates internationally.

The company has been linked to moneylaundering and suspicious activities. Investigative reporting has shown that DAMAC agents instruct potential customers how to avoid scrutiny about the origins of money used to purchase properties, as well as guide customers to buy properties through cash or cryptocurrency.

History
DAMAC Properties was founded in 2002 by Hussain Sajwani, a billionaire Emirati business tycoon. In November 2013, DAMAC announced plans to raise approximately $500 million on the London Stock Exchange via a sale of global depository receipts.

Sajwani is a close friend and associate of Donald Trump. In a 2016 disclosure, Trump reporting received between $1 million to $5 million from DAMAC.

Finances
In the year 2017, the total revenue recorded by DAMAC properties was AED 7.5 billion. In 2018, DAMAC Properties recorded total revenue of AED 6.1 billion.

Projects
The company developed a master-planned residential golf course community around the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, which opened in February 2017. The partnership between DAMAC and The Trump Organization for the development originated in 2013. Originally known as The Akoya, the developer later renamed the residential development DAMAC Hills. The golf club, with golf course, designed by Gil Hanse, were formally opened in February 2017, with Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric as guests of honor. Trump's business relations with DAMAC during his presidency raised concerns about his compliance with the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

A second DAMAC Properties project in Dubai is Akoya Oxygen, a residential development alongside a second Trump International Golf Course, designed by Tiger Woods. Larger than the DAMAC Hills project, DAMAC announced the project in 2014, selling its first homes that year. The development is located within Dubai's Dubailand development. Spending on the Akoya Oxygen project reached $1.5 billion by mid-2018. In the first six months of 2017, DAMAC Properties said that it had awarded AED 1.8 billion in contracts for Akoya Oxygen (making up the bulk of its total contracts over the same period, valued at AED 3.5 billion). A $20 million road and infrastructure contract for the development was awarded in 2018 to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). The $169 million construction contract for Akoya Oxygen was awarded in 2019 to Arabtec Construction, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Arabtec Holding.

Damac owned Safa One and Safa Two. Safa One is situated on the edge of Safa Park, viewing the Dubai Canal while Safa Two is situated opposite to Safa One with views of Dubai Canal, Burj Al Arab and the Palm.

DAMAC Hills is a golf community development located in Al Hebiah 3 in Dubailand. A Damac hotel is located on the Trump International Golf Club Dubai at DAMAC Hills. In November 2020, DAMAC hills launched UAE's first residential wave pool. In 2014, DAMAC Properties launched, DAMAC Hills 2.

DAMAC Heights, a 335 m-tall, 88-floor luxury residential tower in Dubai Marina, opened to tenants in 2018. Arabtec Construction was the primary contractor for the tower, which overlooks Palm Jumeirah.

DAMAC Towers by Paramount is a four-tower development by DAMAC Properties in collaboration with Paramount Hotel & Resorts. The project comprises 2000 units with 1200 units across three residential apartment towers and 800 units in the Paramount Hotel tower.

DAMAC Properties signed a £200 million contract with Lendlease in 2016 to build one of London's tallest residential towers. At 50 floors, AYKON London One, now known as DAMAC Tower Nine Elms London, is located in Nine Elms, on the south bank of the River Thames. The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates with interiors created in partnership with Versace Home. The project is valued at $758 million and was topped out in 2019.

In 2019, DAMAC completed the Ghalia project with 727 apartments in a Sharia-compliant development, located in the Jumeirah Village Circle in Dubai.

DAMAC Hotels & Resorts heads the hospitality element of the company's portfolio, which operates hotel apartment complexes. DAMAC Hotels & Resorts was founded in October 2011.

Controversies
The real estate firm has a long-standing partnership with the businesses of former US president Donald Trump. The Guardian reported that DAMAC board member and former chairman Farooq Arjomand owned a company that paid Alexander Smirnov $600,000 for telling the FBI that Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, engaged in a bribery scheme. Smirnov was later charged for telling fabricated corruption stories about Joe Biden to the FBI.

The company has been linked to moneylaundering and suspicious activities. Investigative reporting has shown that DAMAC agents instruct potential customers how to avoid scrutiny about the origins of money used to purchase properties, as well as guide customers to buy properties through cash or cryptocurrency.