Darvesh unveils 40 branded projects

 

  

Dubai-based Darvesh Group will be investing $6 billion (Dh22bn) to construct 40 “branded” projects across different cities in the next five years, a top company executive said.

 

The company yesterday announced launch of the Le Diamond, a property concept that will span across the Middle East and India, in joint partnership with Ivana Trump (pictured above, middle). Emirates Business had reported in December last year that Darvesh Group would simultaneously launch two projects with Ivana in Dubai and Bahrain.

 

“We plan to have four different branded developments and Ivana Trump is the first brand that we have signed up. Under each brand, we’ll develop 10 properties in different cities, Ahsan Hassan Darvesh, Managing Director, Darvesh Group, said.

 

Construction on the Dubai project, which will be a Dh1.5 billion mixed-use twin tower on Dubai Waterfront, will start by January 2009 and will take 30 months to end.

 

“The property industry in the GCC region is booming and it makes perfect sense to have partnership with Ivana. We realise that this is a very competitive industry and our focus of becoming the largest branded developer in the world will be successful with this venture.”

 

The company plans to replicate the Le Diamond concept in 10 different cities – in Mumbai and New Delhi by the end of this year.

 

“We have entered just at the right time as the market is now ready to absorb real luxury end products,” Darvesh said.

 

According to the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini World Wealth report, the number of high net worth individuals in the world increased to 8.3 per cent in 2006 to 9.5 million from 8.8 million in 2005, while the number of ultra high net worth individuals rose 11.3 per cent to 94,970. The number of UAE millionaires soared by 15.4 per cent to 68,100 in 2006 from 59,000 in 2005.

 

In June 2006, Ivana Trump teamed-up with Damac Properties to launch a luxury residential tower project in Beirut, Lebanon.

 

Darvesh Group, a company set up in 1909, is headquartered in India but has offices across the Middle East, China, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Panama and Myanmar. The company has announced plans to build a Dh3bn aluminium processing plant in the UAE.