Damac chairman could sell part of stake to boost trading

The billionaire chairman of Dubai property developer Damac has said he would be willing to sell part of his stake in the company to boost trading.

Hussain Sajwani, who owns 72 per cent of Damac, has seen his net worth grow from $3.68bn to $5.23bn over the last year after briefly reaching more than $6bn in July, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

He told the news service that he would be “more than happy” to sell as much as 15 per cent of the company but the price would have to be right.

“As an owner who built the company with all the effort and hard work, I am not willing to sell it when I see my stock is undervalued,” he was quoted as saying.

Sajwani has built Damac into one of the Middle East largest developers after founding the company in 2002. Along the way he has partnered with luxury brands like Versace and Fendi and even US President Donald Trump’s Trump Organisation for two golf course developments.

The company’s share price on the Dubai Financial Market has risen steadily over the last year from Dhs2.69 at the start of January 2017 to Dhs3.49 in today’s trading on the back of the historic election win of US President Donald Trump and Damac’s inclusion on MSCI’s global indexes.

“For me, liquidity in the stock is important,” Sajwani said. “At the same time, I love what I do and I see big potential in the company and I want to stay majority shareholder.”

The founder and chairman indicated in an interview with Gulf Business last year that the company was increasingly looking outside of its home market at new developments.

He said the company was looking quite aggressively at different parts of Europe.

Read: Interview: The man behind Damac

Damac is forecasting its sales will grow 7 per cent in 2017 as a downturn in the Dubai property market leads more and more buyers to look at off-plan sales.

Read: Dubai developer Damac says property market ‘not going down’

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