Saudi developer Dar Global eyes $300 million investment in US expansion

By Koh Gui Qing

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Saudi property developer Dar Global plans to invest $300 million in New York, Miami and Los Angeles in the coming months as it seeks partners to develop luxury homes the United States.

London-listed Dar Global hopes to announce its latest development in the United States before the year-end, said Ziad El Chaar, Dar Global's chief executive officer. He said Dar Global has been meeting with top real estate developers, but declined to identify the firms with whom it might partner.

"We are really focusing on closing the first project in the United States before the end of the year," El Chaar said in an interview from Dubai. He said Dar Global is ready to raise debt in and outside the United States to help finance its U.S. projects, and that its $300 million investment will be in the form of equity.

Dar Global, the international arm of Saudi Arabia's Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company, hopes to sell at least half of the homes in its U.S. developments to non-U.S. buyers, El Chaar said.

Dar Al Arkan in November 2022 signed an agreement with the Trump Organization, the company of former U.S. President Donald Trump, to use the Trump brand for its $4 billion project in the Gulf state of Oman that includes a golf course, hotel and villas.

Trump enjoyed close ties with Gulf states during his tenure as president, including Saudi Arabia which has invested $2 billion with a firm of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former aide, incorporated after Trump left office.

El Chaar said while it will be an "honor" for Dar Global to partner with the Trump Organization or the Kushner Companies, Kushner's family real estate firm, in its U.S. expansion, he did not think they have the "right product" as they are too focused on the U.S. market, as opposed to the international buyer targeted by Dar Global.

(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)