A look At Trump’s Business Associates Across Asia

by Daily Mail Online

President Donald Trump has temporarily put his sons in charge of his company, but the Trump Organization still does business abroad. That has prompted questions about whether that might influence Trump’s official decisions.

A look at some of his business partners and contacts in Asia, where he is winding down a five-nation trip:

In this March 2, 2017 photo, Filipino Jose E.B. Antonio, chats before the start of a forum at the Manila Polo Club in the financial district of Makati, Philippines. Trump’s partner in a Philippines venture, Jose E.B. Antonio, was named a “special envoy” to the U.S. by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Oct. 28, less than two weeks before the November 2016 U.S. election. Antonio is chairman of Century Properties Group Inc., which partnered with Trump for the branding of the posh Trump Tower in Manila’s Makati business district. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

PHILIPPINES

Trump’s partner in a Philippines venture, Jose E.B. Antonio, was named a “special envoy” to the U.S. by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Oct. 28, less than two weeks before the November 2016 U.S. election. Antonio is chairman of Century Properties Group Inc., which partnered with Trump for the branding of the posh Trump Tower in Manila’s Makati business district.

The $150 million, 57-story tower was quietly turned over to unit owners earlier this year. The muted opening contrasted with the project’s high-profile 2012 groundbreaking rites, when Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric posed for cameras in Manila, smiling and holding shovels.

Antonio rose from modest beginnings but has been listed along with his son Robbie Antonio by Forbes magazine as the Philippines’ 28th-richest family, with a combined net worth of over $400 million in 2017. Paris Hilton, Versace and Armani are among Antonio’s other rich and famous business partners. The businessman has said he has known Trump for many years and his son Robbie is described on his company’s website as “a good friend of the Trump family.”

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CHINA

Trump has met plenty of Chinese entrepreneurs, but his biggest friends in China in financial terms are state-owned banks and companies. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s No. 1 commercial lender by assets, is among the biggest tenants of Trump Tower in Manhattan. Its lease ends in 2019, which has prompted questions about how a sitting American president’s family company will negotiate new terms with a bank controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump’s partners in Trump World Golf Club Dubai in the Persian Gulf awarded a $32 million contract to China State Construction Engineering Corp. to build the project in a deal reported in September by McClatchy. That prompted questions about whether the Trump Organization was honoring its pledge not to do business with foreign governments.

In the private sector, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest online commerce company by total sales, was among the stream of Chinese business leaders who visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet the president following his election.

The Kushner Cos., the family company of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, cut short a sales campaign in China after a Chinese businesswoman, Ding Ying, was linked to an effort to attract investors in exchange for U.S. visas that advertised ties to the “Trump Family.”

Anbang Insurance Group Ltd., one of China’s biggest insurers, discussed possibly investing in a Manhattan skyscraper owned by Kushner Cos. Those talks ended in March without a deal.

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JAPAN

Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest man and the chief executive and founder of Softbank Group Corp., was quick to visit Trump after the 2016 election and to promise $50 billion for investments in U.S. startups that he said would create 50,000 jobs. After the meeting in Trump Tower, the then-president-elect praised Son as a “great man of industry.”

Son, 60, said he had visited Trump to “celebrate his new job,” adding, “Because he said he would do a lot of deregulation, I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again.'”

A Japanese of Korean ancestry who graduated from the University of California, Son has won both criticism and accolades as a daring investor who has gathered partners in diverse technology sectors from around the world, and has been likened by some to billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

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INDONESIA

Billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo founded his own political party and had ambitions to run for Indonesian president in 2019, but now says he’ll support current President Joko Widodo. His company is building two resorts in Indonesia – one in Bali and the other in West Java – that Trump’s business is involved with through management and licensing deals.

Usually known as Tanoe, the 52-year-old tycoon is the founder of the media and real estate conglomerate MNC. He has been dogged by a criminal investigation this year into accusations that he sent threatening text messages to a deputy attorney general who was investigating a tax case involving an MNC company.

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MALAYSIA

Malaysian property developer Tiah Joo Kim, whose father is one of the Southeast Asian country’s wealthiest businessmen, licensed the Trump brand for a hotel and condominium tower in Vancouver, Canada, before Trump’s political ascent. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric attended the opening in March for the gleaming, 69-story building, where a one-bedroom apartment at 699 square feet (65 square meters) starts at around $1 million.

In an interview with The Associated Press just before the hotel’s opening earlier this year, Joo Kim said he found Trump’s statements about Muslims, Mexicans and women “extremely stressful.” ”I did a lot of soul-searching because people were attacking me for it,” he said.

Joo Kim, 37, is the son of tycoon Tony Tiah Thee Kian, a staunch Christian who built his fortune in stockbroking in the 1990s before expanding into real estate. Groomed to inherit the family business, Joo Kim last year was appointed CEO of its property arm TA Global. He also runs the Canadian-based Holborn Group. Raised in Kuala Lumpur, he studied at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and earned a master’s degree in international business at Macquarie University in Sydney.

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Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo, Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines, Joe McDonald in Beijing, Stephen Wright in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

FILE – In this Jan. 9, 2017 photo, then President-elect Donald Trump stands with Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma as they walk to speak with reporters after a meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest online commerce company by total sales, was among the stream of Chinese business leaders who visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet the president following his election. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE – In this Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, file photo, then President-elect Donald Trump, left, accompanied by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, speaks to members of the media at Trump Tower in New York. Japan’s richest man Son was quick to visit Trump after the 2016 election and to promise $50 billion for investments in U.S. startups that he said would create 50,000 jobs. After the meeting in Trump Tower, then-President-elect Trump praised Son as a “great man of industry.” (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2017, file photo, Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) Group President and CEO Hary Tanoesoedibjo gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia. Billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo founded his own political party and had ambitions to run for Indonesian president in 2019, but now says he’ll support current President Joko Widodo. His company is building two resorts in Indonesia – one in Bali and the other in West Java – that Trump’s business is involved with through management and licensing deals. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
FILE – In this June 19, 2013, file photo, Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up as he poses with Tiah Joo Kim, left, CEO and president of Holborn Group, upon arrival to announce the building of Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Malaysian property developer Joo Kim Tiah, whose father is one of the Southeast Asian country’s wealthiest businessmen, licensed the Trump brand for a hotel and condominium tower in Vancouver, Canada. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric attended the opening in March for the gleaming, 69-story building, where a one-bedroom apartment, at 699 square feet, starts at around $1 million. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Inside President Donald Trump’s Global Web Of Partners

by Dan Alexander, Forbes Middle East

The night before Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States, his recently opened Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., serves as the capital’s de facto inner sanctum. Barricades ring the place; if you don’t have a room or a reservation, good luck getting in.

As with any club worth its gilt, secret, concentric rings of exclusivity sit in plain sight, and one starts near the lobby bar, which is lined with bottles of Dom Pérignon and draped with a giant American flag. There, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, Trump’s billionaire Indonesian business partner, sits on a plush sofa, texting with Trump’s billionaire Dubai partner, Hussain Sajwani. Eventually they meet, and Tanoesoedibjo later posts an Instagram picture of himself, Sajwani and their wives mugging for the camera in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel.

Upstairs, Phil Ruffin, Trump’s billionaire partner in Las Vegas, has taken up residence in $18,000-a-night accommodations. The presidential suite, Ruffin says, was reserved for the president-elect. When he later complained about the price to Trump, the president demurred. Ruffin might need that money: His wife, Oleksandra, a former Miss Ukraine, has hit it off with Sajwani’s wife over their mutual love of expensive jewelry.

All told, at least 14 from this community of partners, from Turkey to India to the Philippines, attended the inauguration festivities.

“People often talk about partners as not necessarily friends, almost as if they’re mutually exclusive. ‘If you’re a partner, you’re not a friend, and if you’re a friend, you’re not a partner,’ ” says Eric Trump, the president’s son and co-chief of the Trump Organization, who now sits, with brother Don Jr., at the nexus of this global network. “I think that’s a bad way of thinking.”

All these friends, old and new, mixed with an awesome amount of power and money, do not produce a good recipe for eight hours’ sleep. Joo Kim Tiah, a Malaysian heir who would shortly unveil the world’s newest Trump tower, in Vancouver, eventually complains: “Do you guys know what time it is?” “I’m sorry, Mr. Tiah, we can’t turn the music down,” the hotel staffer responds. “This is once in a lifetime.”
Indeed it is. Never has an American president taken office with such immense and complicated assets. Nor has one brought along a busload of rich partners who, by dint of previous deals and brand association, stand to reap profits in real time, as the president serves.

To better understand this global network, Forbes looked into each of these 36 partners, traveling to five countries to interview more than a dozen of them. In the process we made the following discoveries:

  • A potential business partner in Russia says he exchanged messages with the Trump family as recently as January.
  • Ruffin and the Trump Organization are considering a Trump casino in Las Vegas, perhaps bolstered by a federally backed high-speed rail connection to Los Angeles—a matter that Ruffin says he’s discussed with the president himself.
  • Trump’s partner in Indonesia, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, intends to use the Trump playbook to become president of the world’s fourth-most-populous country within ten years.
  • Trump’s attitude toward Muslims spurred, in part, a family feud among his partners in Turkey.

But perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes in the aggregate. Trump’s network extends to at least 19 countries. And these guys (yes, they’re all men) share a set of consistent traits, even as property developers go. This group is uniformly rich— seven are members of the Forbes Billionaires list; many more claim centimillionaire status. They reflect their partner—a mélange of bombastic marketing, over-the-top style and political connections.

And all of them are trying to figure out, to various degrees, how to cash in on the 45th president.

ERIC TRUMP MOTIONS to a small TV in the corner of his office in Trump Tower. “If I turn on the TV—let’s just see—I will bet you that [my father] will be on the screen in some way, shape or form.” He picks up the remote and clicks the power button. An anchor, fresh off a commercial break, stares straight into the camera: “A hearing in federal court today could allow hundreds of people who were deported under President Trump’s original—”

Eric smiles as he turns off the set. “I see him up there all day, every day. And I realize how big of a magnitude the decisions he makes and the things he has on his plate.”

His father’s presence in the business extends beyond his office television. In January, Trump stood in Trump Tower and announced that he was handing over control of his business to his sons as part of an effort to separate it from his presi- dency—though by putting his assets in a trust, he’s really just parking his holdings rather than divesting from them. And because he knows exactly what assets are in the trust, it’s anything but blind.

A month later, Eric seems to acknowledge this dilemma. One minute, he promises to never talk about the business with his father while he serves in the White House. Less than two minutes later, he says he will update his father on the company’s financials “probably quarterly.”

He also claims that the business is following through on its plan to hand over profits at its hotels from foreign dignitaries to the U.S. Treasury, even though the Trump business partner in Las Vegas says there is no such thing happening at their hotel. The pledge was intended to resolve concerns that the president would violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, a barely litigated section of America’s founding document that prohibits federal officials from receiving “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.” A group of legal scholars and bipartisan ethics experts have begun the lengthy process of suing Trump. “He has all of the conflicts of interest that he had before,” says Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, who is one of the lawyers facing off against him in the suit.

Some of Trump’s foreign partners are already finding themselves politically popular in their home countries. The Philippines’ strongman president, Rodrigo Duterte, appointed Trump partner Jose Antonio to serve as a special envoy to the United States just before Trump’s November victory. In India, billionaire Mangal Lodha is developing a 75-story Trump building while serving as a regional vice president of a major political party. Indonesia’s Tanoesoedibjo is building up a following as he mulls a presidential run.

“We have incredible relationships with the people we do projects with,” Eric Trump says. “You want somebody who trusts you. You want to be able to trust them.”

FOR ALL THE CLUMSINESS around how detached the president is from his business, from a management perspective, little has changed for the foreign partners. Although 85% of Donald Trump’s $3.5 billion fortune is wrapped up in stable buildings and golf courses in the United States, the most dynamic part of his business are its foreign licensing and management deals, which garner an estimated 3% to 5% of revenues without adding any risk. And Eric and Donald Jr. have for years served as deal scouts, logging hundreds of thousands of miles to find and close foreign partnerships. “He gives his sons a lot of autonomy to make the company’s decisions,” says Paulo Figueiredo Filho, who partnered with the Trumps in Brazil. “They were already conducting 90% of the business, even before the presidency.”

The Trump fils took an informal approach to vetting potential partners, relying, like their dad, as much on gut as numbers and analyses. “We’re a little bit of an insular company in that the vast majority of this stuff, we just do ourselves,” Eric says. “The first criterion that we look at if we’re going to do something with somebody else is ‘Are they a good person?’… That’s the way it has to work. If you’re looking at documents, if you’re looking at contracts, something is deeply wrong.”

The brand attracts a certain type of partner—flashy and ambitious. In the Philippines, Jose and Robbie Antonio also designed a beachclub with Paris Hilton. Dubai’s Hussain Sajwani has forged a $3.7 billion fortune selling real estate and tossing in extravagant add-ons, including BMWs and Lamborghinis. In Russia, Emin Agalarov works alongside his billionaire father, Aras, on real estate projects, while also moonlighting as a pop star (Trump once made a cameo in one of his music videos).

These are not the types of businessmen to ignore the fact that they are now tied to the most famous, controversial person in the world. Trump’s own organization has shown how to exploit the moment. During the week-end of the inauguration, guests swarmed the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., paying upwards of $70,000 for a four-night stay. At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, initiation fees reportedly jumped from $100,000 to $200,000 in January. The property is now worth an estimated $175 million, roughly 15% more than it was six months ago, as its historical significance increases seemingly by the week.

“From a business standpoint, is the presidency beneficial?” Eric Trump says. “You have to look at it both ways. If you’re talking about existing assets, they’re doing amazing. If you’re talking about as a whole, we’ve made sacrifices in order to al- low him—and he’s made sacrifices in order to allow him—to take the biggest office in the world.”

Ditto for his partners. The crew swanning around the inauguration was clearly thrilled, both with the proximity to power and with the opportunities that might afford. Agalarov says he would probably be working on a Trump Tower in Russia if the U.S. real estate mogul hadn’t launched his campaign. A different partner in the nation of Georgia says the Trump Organization asked to cancel its deal in order to comply with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. (It is unclear why the Trump Organization might think its Georgia deal would have caused constitutional issues but not Trump’s other active foreign partnerships. A Trump Organization lawyer wouldn’t comment.) And just before he entered the White House, Trump said Hussain Sajwani offered him $2 billion for a new deal that the president turned down.

In Istanbul, though, the Dogan family tried to terminate their agreement with Trump. In Toronto, partners reportedly tried to remove the Trump name from one of their buildings.

Most partners continue to pledge their support—in private if not publicly. “Today the Trump brand is stronger all over the world,” Agalarov says. Any hard feelings about the canceled tower? “As soon as Mr. Trump got elected, we sent congratulations letters, to which they replied, and we exchanged texts,” Agalarov adds. “He does not forget his friends.”

Meet The Trump Business Partner Who’s Also The Philippines’ New Trade Envoy To The US

by Abram Brown, Forbes India

Trump business partner Robbie Antonio
Image: Jason Quibilan for Forbes

Robbie Antonio winds his way through full-scale models of the apartments that he and his father, Jose, are selling in a new residential tower in Manila. The units, which start at $160,000, are accented by cool greys and blues, and like many other Antonio projects, they’re a co-branded affair, featuring minimalistic, Armani-designed interiors.  

The Armani partnership is evocative of the Antonio business model. In the 31 years since Jose founded the $230 million-in-annual-sales Century Properties, the Philippine economy has blossomed, and they have responded to the growing demand for increasingly plush apartments and offices with the first condominiums in the Philippines, an ultraluxe Manila tower called Gramercy Residences and a man-made beach with a beach club designed by Paris Hilton. They often work in partnership with Western brands like Armani, Missoni and Versace—and, full disclosure, with Forbes Media. The Antonios broke ground last year on a Forbes-branded Manila office building. A few blocks away from Forbes Tower is a Trump-branded, Antonio-built residential tower. The $150 million, 57-storey tower is nearly ready to open. “Trump has been a very positive experience,” says Robbie. And most of that experience has revolved around the friendship he has forged with the Trump children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.

The Antonio-Trump relationship has morphed in the last couple of months. Back on October 13, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte named Jose as the Philippines’ special envoy for business and trade to the US. An Antonio spokesman says Jose’s role is a “non-governmental, non-policymaking” position. He says, Jose’s “priority is the enhancement of the Philippines’ and US’s business relations.” And who could better strengthen business relations between the Philippines and a Trump America than a Trump business partner?

(This story appears in the 28 April, 2017 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

In Trump They Trust: The President’s Global Web Of Business Partners

by Forbes India

A previously little-known batch of billionaires And tycoons from Around the world suddenly find themselves in An unprecedented position: how do you cash in on A partnership with the president of the United States of America? from the Avaricious dealmakers to the Abandoned deals, meet the world’s 36 mini-trumps

Image: Clockwise From Top Left: Philip Cheung For Forbes; Jamel Toppin For Forbes; Jason Quibilan For Forbes; Vikas Khot; Tim Pannell For Forbes; Jamel Toppin For Forbes; Donald Trump: Jamel Toppin For Forbes

The night before Donald J Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States, his recently opened Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, serves as the capital’s de facto inner sanctum. Barricades ring the place; if you don’t have a room or a reservation, good luck getting in.

As with any club worth its gilt, secret, concentric rings of exclusivity sit in plain sight, and one starts near the lobby bar, which is lined with bottles of Dom Pérignon and draped with a giant American flag. There, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, Trump’s billionaire Indonesian business partner, sits on a plush sofa, texting with Trump’s billionaire Dubai partner, Hussain Sajwani. Eventually, they meet, and Tanoesoedibjo later posts an Instagram picture of himself, Sajwani and their wives mugging for the camera in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel.

Upstairs, Phil Ruffin, Trump’s billionaire partner in Las Vegas, has taken up residence in $18,000-a-night accommodations. The presidential suite, Ruffin says, was reserved for the president-elect. When he later complained about the price to Trump, the president demurred. Ruffin might need that money: His wife, Oleksandra, a former Miss Ukraine, has hit it off with Sajwani’s wife over their mutual love of expensive jewellery.

All told, at least 14 from this community of partners, from Turkey to India to the Philippines, attended the inauguration festivities. “People often talk about partners as not necessarily friends, almost as if they’re mutually exclusive. ‘If you’re a partner, you’re not a friend, and if you’re a friend, you’re not a partner,’ ” says Eric Trump, the president’s son and co-chief of the Trump Organization, who now sits, with brother Don Jr, at the nexus of this global network. “I think that’s a bad way of thinking.”

All these friends, old and new, mixed with an awesome amount of power and money, do not produce a good recipe for eight hours’ sleep. Joo Kim Tiah, a Malaysian heir who would shortly unveil the world’s newest Trump tower, in Vancouver, eventually complains: “Do you guys know what time it is?”

“I’m sorry, Mr Tiah, we can’t turn the music down,” the hotel staffer responds. “This is once in a lifetime.”

Indeed it is. Never has an American president taken office with such immense and complicated assets. Nor has one brought along a busload of rich partners who, by dint of previous deals and brand association, stand to reap profits in real time, as the president serves.

Image: Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver: Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images; Trump Towers Istanbul: Shutterstock.Com; Azerbaijan Trump International Hotel And Tower Baku: Shutterstock.Com; Uruguay Trump Punta Del Este: Miguel Rojo / AFP / Getty Images

To better understand this global network, Forbes looked into each of these 36 partners, travelling to five countries to interview more than a dozen of them. In the process, we made the following discoveries:
• A potential business partner in Russia says he exchanged  messages with the Trump family as recently as January.
• Ruffin and the Trump Organization are considering a Trump casino in Las Vegas, perhaps bolstered by a federally backed high-speed rail connection to Los Angeles—a matter that Ruffin says he’s discussed with the president himself.
• Trump’s partner in Indonesia, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, intends to use the Trump playbook to become president of the world’s fourth-most-populous country within 10 years—and has recently been accused of playing a role in an alleged plot to frame a top Indonesian government official for murder.
• Trump’s attitude towards Muslims spurred, in part, a family feud among his partners in Turkey.

But perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes in the aggregate. Trump’s network extends to at least 19 countries. And these guys (yes, they’re all men) share a set of consistent traits, even as property developers go. This group is uniformly rich—seven are members of the Forbes billionaires list; many more claim centimillionaire status. They reflect their partner—a mélange of bombastic marketing, over-the-top style and political connections.And all of them are trying to figure out, to various degrees, how to cash in on the 45th president.

Eric Trump motions to a small TV in the corner of his office in Trump Tower. “If I turn on the TV—let’s just see—I will bet you that [my father] will be on the screen in some way, shape or form.” He picks up the remote and clicks the power button. An anchor, fresh off a commercial break, stares straight into the camera: “A hearing in federal court today could allow hundreds of people who were deported under President Trump’s original—”Eric smiles as he turns off the set. “I see him up there all day, every day. And I realise how big of a magnitude the decisions he makes and the things he has on his plate.”

His father’s presence in the business extends beyond his office television. In January, Trump stood in Trump Tower and announced that he was handing over control of his business to his sons as part of an effort to separate it from his presidency—though by putting his assets in a trust, he’s really just parking his holdings rather than divesting from them. And because he knows exactly what assets are in the trust, it’s anything but blind.

Trump’s network extends to at least 19 countries. and these guys (yes, they’re all men) share a set of traits

A month later, Eric seems to acknowledge this dilemma. One minute, he promises to never talk about the business with his father while he serves in the White House. Less than two minutes later, he says he will update his father on the company’s finan-cials “probably quarterly”.

He also claims that the business is following through on its plan to hand over profits at its hotels from foreign dignitaries to the US Treasury, even though the Trump business partner in Las Vegas says there is no such thing happening at their hotel. The pledge was intended to resolve concerns that the president would violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, a barely litigated section of America’s founding document that prohibits federal officials from receiving “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state”. A group of legal scholars and bipartisan ethics experts have begun the lengthy process of suing Trump. “He has all of the conflicts of interest that he had before,” says Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer for George W Bush, who is one of the lawyers facing off against him in the suit.

Some of Trump’s foreign partners are already finding themselves politically popular in their home countries. The Philippines’ strongman president, Rodrigo Duterte, appointed Trump partner Jose Antonio to serve as a special envoy to the US just before Trump’s November victory. In India, billionaire Mangal Lodha is developing a 75-storey Trump building while serving as a regional vice president of a major political party. Indonesia’s Tanoesoedibjo is building up a following as he mulls a presidential run.

“We have incredible relationships with the people we do projects with,” Eric Trump says. “You want somebody who trusts you. You want to be able to trust them.”

For all the clumsiness around how detached the president is from his business, from a management perspective, little has changed for the foreign partners. Although 85 percent of Donald Trump’s $3.5 billion fortune is wrapped up in stable buildings and golf courses in the US, the most dynamic part of his business are its foreign licensing and management deals, which garner an estimated 3-5 percent of revenues without adding any risk. And Eric and Donald Jr have for years served as deal scouts, logging hundreds of thousands of miles to find and close foreign partnerships. “He gives his sons a lot of autonomy to make the company’s decisions,” says Paulo Figueiredo Filho, who partnered with the Trumps in Brazil. “They were already conducting 90 percent of the business, even before the presidency.”

The Trump fils took an informal approach to vetting potential partners, relying, like their dad, as much on gut as numbers and analyses. “We’re a little bit of an insular company in that the vast majority of this stuff, we just do ourselves,” Eric says. “The first criterion that we look at if we’re going to do something with somebody else is ‘Are they a good person?’ . . . That’s the way it has to work. If you’re looking at documents, if you’re looking at contracts, something is deeply wrong.”

The brand attracts a certain type of partner—flashy and ambitious. In the Philippines, Jose and Robbie Antonio also designed a beachclub with Paris Hilton. Dubai’s Hussain Sajwani has forged a $3.7 billion fortune selling real estate and tossing in extravagant add-ons, including BMWs and Lamborghinis. In Russia, Emin Agalarov works alongside his billionaire father, Aras, on real estate projects, while also moonlighting as a pop star (Trump once made a cameo in one of his music videos).

These are not the types of businessmen to ignore the fact that they are now tied to the most famous, controversial person in the world. Trump’s own organisation himself has shown how to exploit the moment. During the weekend of the inauguration, guests swarmed the Trump hotel in Washington, DC, paying upwards of $70,000 for a four-night stay. At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, initiation fees reportedly jumped from $100,000 to $200,000 in January. The property is now worth an estimated $175 million, roughly 15 percent more than it was six months ago, as its historical significance increases seemingly by the week.

“From a business standpoint, is the presidency beneficial?” Eric Trump says. “You have to look at it both ways. If you’re talking about existing assets, they’re doing amazing. If you’re talking about as a whole, we’ve made sacrifices in order to allow him—and he’s made sacrifices in order to allow him—to take the biggest office in the world.”

Ditto for his partners. The crew swanning around the inauguration was clearly thrilled, both with the proximity to power and with the opportunities that might afford. Agalarov says he would probably be working on a Trump Tower in Russia if the US real estate mogul hadn’t launched his campaign. A different partner in the nation of Georgia says the Trump Organization asked to cancel its deal in order to comply with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

(It is unclear why the Trump Organization might think its Georgia deal would have caused constitutional issues but not Trump’s other active foreign partnerships. A Trump Organization lawyer wouldn’t comment.) And just before he entered the White House, Trump said Hussain Sajwani offered him $2 billion for a new deal that the president turned down. In Istanbul, though, the Dogan family tried to terminate their agreement with Trump. In Toronto, partners reportedly tried to remove the Trump name from one of their buildings.

Most partners continue to pledge their support—in private if not publicly. “Today, the Trump brand is stronger all over the world,” Agalarov says. Any hard feelings about the cancelled tower? “As soon as he got elected, we sent congratulations letters, to which they replied, and we exchanged texts,” Agalarov adds. “He does not forget his friends.”

(This story appears in the 28 April, 2017 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

Top Collector Robbie Antonio’s Family Has Substantial Business Ties to Donald Trump

by Eileen Kinsella, artnet News

As the businessman prepares to step into the role of president, a lengthy New York Times story on November 26 takes aim at US president-elect Donald Trump’s financial ties and potential conflicts worldwide.

The story opens with a discussion of Jose E.B. Antonio, a Philippine developer who is the father of Robbie Antonio, one of artnet New’s top collectors to watch and a fixture on the art circuit; Robbie is seen frequently at high-profile events including art fairs and major auctions, including Sotheby’s recent Impressionist and modern art evening sale earlier this month.

According to the Times report, E.B. Antonio, who was “quietly named a special envoy to the United States by the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte,” is building a $150 million tower in Manila’s financial district. His business partner is none other than Trump.

Announcement of Trump Tower Manila. Courtesy of Flickr Commons.

Following the election, E.B. Antonio flew to New York for a private meeting at Trump Tower with the Trump children, who have been involved with the Manila project from the beginning, along with Antonio’s children. Robbie confirmed to the Times that the Trumps and Antonios have other projects in the works, including Trump-branded resorts in the Philippines.

Robbie gave an interview to the Times in which he assured that there was no reason to doubt his father’s priorities. “It is for the good of the country now,” he said.

Beyond real estate, the 39-year-old entrepreneur has also developed a taste for expensive art. According to a page on Century Properties, he displays a number of blue-chip artworks in his $15 million Manila house that was designed by Rem Koolhaas’ firm OMA. In a 2013 profile in Vanity Fair, he commissioned “a series of portraits of himself by some of the world’s top contemporary artists,” such as “Julian Schnabel, Marilyn Minter, David Salle, Zhang Huan, members of the Bruce High Quality Foundation, and Takashi Murakami.”

Now, Robbie is developing designer-driven luxury homes for international clients. “I want the homes to be perceived as art pieces,” he told Forbes at Frieze Art Fair earlier this year. His first big sale was in March, via a Zaha Hadid-designed dining pavilion that sold for €1.3 million ($1.37 million).

Shares in Century Properties rally after Trump’s US presidential win

by CHRISEE DELA PAZ, Rappler

The local property developer bucks regional bloodbath on Wednesday, November 9, with analysts believing the surge is because of Trump’s presidential victory

MANILA, Philippines – Century Properties Group Incorporated surged on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday, November 9, after its business partner Donald Trump won the United States presidential election.

Shares in the property company, which holds the license to develop Trump Tower in Manila, settled at 72 centavos after gaining 12 centavos or 20% in Wednesday’s trading.

Century Properties bucked the regional bloodbath, with analysts believing the surge was because of Trump’s presidential victory.

This developed as the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) plunged to 2.58% or 188.76 points to close at 7,119.04, and property shares slid by 3.47% or 112.43 points to 3,131.34. (READ: From Paris Hilton to Donald Trump, Century Properties’ celebrity ties)

“This is more of a psychological buy. As you know, they are the local partner of Trump Organization for Trump Tower Manila,” Harry Liu, chief of brokerage firm Summit Securities Incorporated, said in a phone interview.

COL Financial head of research April Lee Tan echoed Liu’s remarks. She said Trump’s victory could be the reason for the surge in Century Properties’ shares, amid a regional bloodbath.

Donald Trump Jr, the US president-elect’s son, visited the country in 2014 to help Century Properties break ground on the $150-million Trump TowerTM Manila, a 56-storey residential building in the sprawling business district of Makati City.

“I’ve always loved the Philippines. I think it’s just a special place, and Manila is one of Asia’s most spectacular cities. I know that this project will be second to none,” Donald Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, was quoted in the official website of Trump Tower Philippines as saying.

Robbie Antonio, the head of the company’s business development, was introduced to Ivanka Trump, who had him meet her father, who then agreed to license his trade and family name to Century.

As of May 2016, Century Properties said masonry activities for Trump Tower were in “full swing up to the topmost floor (57th level) while plumbing and electrical roughing-in have reached the 40th floor.” It is set to be opened within the year.

CEO named as special envoy to the US

Other than the Trump victory, Liu said investors could be thinking that “Jose Antonio being the new special envoy to the US will be beneficial for the company.”

President Rodrigo Duterte last October 28 named Century Properties chairman and CEO Antonio as special envoy to the US.

“His mission is to enhance business ties and strengthen the economic affairs between the two countries,” Century Properties told the local bourse in a disclosure.

Antonio also served as the country’s special envoy for trade and economics to China in 2005.

The chief of Century Properties graduated cum laude from San Beda College in Manila in 1966 and from Harvard University’s Owner/President Management Program in 2003. – Rappler.com

The man of substance

by Robbie Antonio, Philippine Daily Inquirer

The younger Antonio with his father, former Ambassador Jose E.B. Antonio, who also serves as chairman of Century Properties.

I have been referred to as “Asia’s youngest real estate tycoon” and by Forbes Asia as the “liaison to the stars” as we, at Century Properties, have brought global fashion houses, Hollywood A-listers, prominent architects, and the most iconic real estate brands to the Philippines for exclusive luxury projects that are now changing Manila’s skyline.

It was in 2011 when I headed Century Properties’ International Brand Collaborations, and started to conceptualize, negotiate, source, and launch projects in Manila with lifestyle game-changers. These included the Trump Organization for Trump Tower at Century City; Paris Hilton for the Paris Beach Club at Azure Urban Resort Residences; and The Milano Residences in partnership with Versace and in collaboration with MissoniHome. We’ve also had collaborations with Yoo, the interior design company founded by John Hitchcox; and Philippe Starck, one of the most celebrated and revered living designers today. Our latest project is Century Spire, a residential office tower whose architecture is by Daniel Libeskind, with amenity interiors designed by Armani/Casa.

Over the years, I have learned that passion for innovation and excellence should always go hand in hand with market understanding and experience. We have to learn from the lessons of history, and innovate towards the aspirations of our target market. We may have come up with products that one would normally consider tough to sell but we’ve also successfully tapped into the aspiration of many Filipinos—which is to have a higher quality of life.

Apart from catering to the needs of the market, it would also be crucial to offer the best value among the products in your own category. Adding value to a real estate property will attract the very discerning property market. The market will always respond positively to lifestyle innovations that make sense. For a few more dollars, one can own property that is above par not only in terms of money value but also quality of life.

I have also learned that timing is everything. You have to know when to introduce specific products to specific markets. Developers who have experienced more than four economic cycles like ours will develop the sense of launching the right product to the right market at the right time.

Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president for Trump Organization, with Robbie Antonio of Century Properties. NELSON MATAWARAN