Emaar snaps up remaining 35 per cent stake in resort developer Mirage for Dh66.5m
Emaar Properties, Dubai’s blue-chip property developer, completed its buyout of development management company Mirage Leisure and Development, taking the remaining 35 per cent of the business it did not already own for Dh66.5 million.
The developer secured a 65 per cent stake in Mirage in October 2015 for Dh123.5m, but financial statements filed last week show that it acquired the remainder of the company at the end of April this year.
“Managing Mirage fully is the best fit for Emaar as the company performs exceptionally well and also manages the development of Emaar’s hospitality assets,” a spokesman for Emaar told The National.
Mirage was started in 1995 by chairman Dene Murphy, who had previously worked for Sol Kerzner’s Kerzner International – the company behind the Atlantis and One & Only hotel resorts that is now owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (which also holds a 29.2 per cent share in Emaar).
The company has developed hospitality projects such as Emaar’s The Address Downtown, the Armani hotel and Opera House district in Downtown Dubai, and is also working on Vida, Palace and the Address Harbour Point hotels at the developer’s Dubai Creek Harbour site.
It has also developed Meraas holding company’s Bluewaters Island, the St Regis Saaadiyat Island and the Madinat Jumeirah project for other developers, and is currently working on The Island – a man-made island being developed near Burj Al Arab that will eventually contain Dubai-based offshoots of Las Vegas hotel brands MGM and Bellagio.
Emaar’s financial statements also revealed some of the terms of the Dh25 billion Mina Rashid project announced in May.
The scheme is a joint venture with DP World, owner and operator of the Mina Rashid Port around which a major new mixed-use project is planned containing a yacht club, 12,600 square metres of new beachfront and a waterfront retail and leisure scheme it billed as “The Dubai Mall by the sea”.
Accounts show that Emaar entered into a joint development agreement with Mina Rashid Properties in January, and took control of the venture at the end of June, acquiring land worth about Dh1.28bn which has been declared as an asset and a liability on its balance sheet. It also said Emaar has agreed to share 30 per cent of any future profits made from Mina Rashid over the project’s lifespan.
“Work on Mina Rashid is progressing as scheduled,” the Emaar spokesman said. “We launched residential communities in the mega- development to strong investor response, and we are planning new launches in due course. Mina Rashid has always been a 70:30 joint venture between Emaar and DP World-owned P&O Marinas.”
In the first half of 2019, both revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders at Emaar Properties declined by about 4 per cent, to Dh11.57bn and Dh3.1bn, respectively. Property sales were up 52 per cent to Dh9.4bn.