Emaar Properties, a Dubai-based real estate development company founded by Mohamed Alabbar, has reported its 2025 results, marking record business performance. Property sales reached AED 80.4 billion (USD 21.9 billion), while profit before tax amounted to AED 25.7 billion (USD 7 billion).
The company is listed on the Dubai Financial Market, and its largest single shareholder is the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the investment arm of the Government of Dubai, holding approximately a 22 percent stake. Such an ownership structure combines institutional capital with the obligations and transparency requirements of a publicly listed company.
EMAAR’s business model is based on the development of large integrated urban communities that combine residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality components. This integrated project structure enables revenue diversification and resilience to market cycles, which is reflected in its 2025 results.
Large Capital, Small Market: What Alabbar’s Results Mean for Montenegro
In the context of these financial indicators, Mohamed Alabbar’s growing interest in Montenegro gains additional significance. Over the past two years, through multiple visits to the country, Alabbar has publicly stated that he is considering the development of several projects at various locations.
For now, however, the only concrete and publicly confirmed project is the one at Lake Šas in Ulcinj, for which an agreement has been signed with Montenegrin companies Cungu and Bold.
It is important to distinguish the corporate structure: the projects in Montenegro are not formally linked to EMAAR as the Dubai-listed company, but rather to other business entities within Mohamed Alabbar’s investment portfolio. Nevertheless, EMAAR’s financial results provide context regarding the scale of capital and experience in delivering large-scale projects.
For Montenegro’s business community, the key question is not only the volume of announced investments, but also their structure, implementation timeline, and alignment with the country’s regulatory and spatial planning framework. The record results of the company founded by Alabbar confirm that significant capital underpins this interest.
Whether that capital will be directed to Montenegro in full, and under what conditions, will depend on forthcoming institutional and market developments. For now, the project at Lake Šas remains the first tangible indication of ambitions that, according to public statements, are broader in scope.
