Financial Times President writes about the way Trump's son-in-law discovered the island of Saban

The article also mentions the story of how the idea of investments in Saban in Albania and his relations with Prime Minister Rama arose. Quoted by FTPrime Minister Rama expresses enthusiasm for investing in his country. Donald Trump's connection to the luxury resort project represents an extraordinary “addback”, he acknowledges.

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In the summer of 2021, Jared Kouchner was sailing into the Mediterranean with his family, several months after his father - in - law's first troubled mandate, Donald Trump. As he stopped off the Albanian coast, he asked a friend of his to mediate a meeting on his yacht with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

During the evening meal, Rama, known for his friendly nature, established ties with Kouchner and discussed how Albania's stunning Adriatic coast is often overlooked by wealthy tourists travelling between Italy and the Greek islands.

“Kouchner did not mention investments,” remembers Rama. “just asking for Albania... Practically, they had no knowledge of Albanian history.” Kouchner and his family left the next day.

When they met again in Davos a few months later, Rama says Kouchner told him he had loved Albania very much. He had also met Mohammed Alabbar, the billionaire from the Persian Gulf, who is developing a luxury marine at the port of Durres. Both had discussed investment opportunities, Rama shows. I said this would be incredible. ”

Kouchner visited Albania again in the summer of 2023 with a larger group, including Richard Green, a close ally of Trump who had served as his envoy for the Balkans during the first term and was recently appointed as special envoy for Trump's second term. “They stayed about a week, visiting different locations,” says Rama. This time, Kouchner was clear: We're interested in investing. ”

On 30 December last year, just three weeks before Trump's second inauguration, the Albanian government gave preliminary approval for Kouchner to develop a $1.4 billion luxury resort in Saban, Albania's only Mediterranean island. This is one of the most important investments of his private capital firm, Affinity Partners, which Kouchner founded shortly after the end of Trump's first term, mainly with funds from Saudi Arabia.

The agreement in Albania provides a mirror on the business empire Kouchner has built since his departure from office as senior adviser to the first Trump administration. During that time, he played a key role in several foreign policy issues, especially in the Middle East, and was viewed by many diplomats as an effective solver of problems.

Before entering politics, Kouchner was a property developer, with the main focus in New York City. However, since leaving Washington, he has built a global portfolio with company shares and property in Eastern Europe, the Persian Gulf and Latin America.

Many of these agreements have been facilitated by the contacts he created while in government or by the high profile he won as one of his father-in-law's most trusted helpers. Kouchner has shown the ability to transform relations and proximity to power into large investments.

An example of this is his positioning as an mediator for investors from the Persian Gulf who want to invest in Israel's private dynamic sector.

Kouchner says his business model is based on the ability to look at trends in front of others. “I feel very comfortable being against the current,” he tells FT. “It was easy for me to support Trump when people in my circle thought this was not popular or clever. I believed I could make progress in the Middle East, even when everyone said I was crazy. ”

Even before Trump won the election again, Kouchner faced charges of potential conflicts of interest. The Democrats have suggested that investors from the Persian Gulf could see Kouchner financing as a way to win Trump's favour.

These questions will likely be added now that Trump has returned to the White House. Kouchner does not have an official role, but he is made available to advise the administration on specific issues.

In particular, it is committed to the possibility of an approach between Saudi Arabia and Israel, two countries where it has deep political ties. However, it would mean that he would advise on an issue directly affecting the Saudi state, which is also one of the biggest investors in Affinity, his private capital firm.

I have concerns that Kouchner, as well as other members of the Trump family, will benefit financially by using his status to suggest that he can influence administration policies,” says Michael Meltsner, professor of justice at Northeastern University.

Kouchner insists there is no conflict of interest and that most criticism is politically motivated. These are not real investigations,” he says. “It's a political attack without any real basis. ”

As heir to an empire of real estate in New York, Kouchner made his first profit while studying at Harvard in the early 2000s, buying apartments worth $9m in a Boston labour district and then selling it for almost twice as much as the area was urbanized.

But a decisive test came just before the financial crisis. In 2005, he took the lead in the family business of real estate when his father, Charles Kouchner, was sentenced to prison for fiscal fraud and witness manipulation. Charles was accused of hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother - in - law, who was cooperating with the authorities. He was pardoned by Trump in 2020 and has now been proposed to be the next US ambassador to France.

The Kouchner family raged in 2007 when it sold its assets in the suburbs to finance the purchase of a skyscraper in Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion. The time was wrong and the value of property fell quickly under its debt, leading to years of negotiations where Kouchner and his father managed to keep off creditors and continue to invest vigorously, putting $14 billion in property deals.

By 2011, Kouchner had sold the building's commercial space for $1 billion to lower the debt, but financial difficulties continued much of Trump's first term. In 2018, Canadian real estate giant Brookfield paid $1.1 billion to take control of the building, enabling Kouchner to pay off large debts and maintain an interest in the rent of land.

At the time, Kouchner was one of the most influential advisers in the White House. He managed to establish close ties with key figures in the Middle East, building close relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Kouchner led the US negotiations on Abraham's Agreements, which led to the normalisation of Israel's relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. He turned this diplomatic success into a business opportunity.

In January 2021, he founded Affinity Partners to focus on sectors such as artificial intelligence and pure energy. One of his first supporters was the Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which invested $2 billion virtually all the firm's initial foreign capital. Last year, Kouchner withdrew another 1.5 billion dollars from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, now managing a total of $4.6 billion.

Collecting such a large capital for a small firm, without any visible investment history, enabled Kouchner to earn money simply by managing funds. With a fee of 1.25 per cent of investors' capital, Affinity is expected to generate millions of dollars a year from management fees, with most of the profits on operational expenditures going to Kouchner, as the main shareholder. To earn higher rates from performance, Kouchner's investments must achieve high profit targets.

His new private capital group (PE), headquartered at a water-side skyscraper in Miami, where even billionaire funder Carl Icahn, started with about two dozen employees. Among them were former White House officials such as Avi Berquetz, one of the architects of the Abraham Accords, Kevin Hasset, economic adviser to Trump, and Thomas Storch, former deputy director for the international economy. Investment staff also includes Luis Videgaray, former foreign minister of Mexico. However, the firm has experienced a considerable number of evacuations, with several early employees turning into government roles.

During the first full year of investments, Affinity finalised three major agreements, including a $200 million investment in Mosaic, a solar equipment financing company on roofing buildings. Other early investments included Dubizzle, an online notification platform based on the United Arab Emirates, as well as Unybrands, a company buying and consolidating vendors within the Amazon e-commerce platform. Unnybrands had the support of Adam Neumann, former director of Wework, with whom Kouchner had met years ago.

Recently, it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars and taken a seat on the CXO Steering Board, an investment company run by billionaire Bradley Jacobs, which has recently launched an $11 billion hostile offer for the purchase of an American construction company.

Kouchner has also made major minority investments in two renowned Israeli companies, including Phoenix Financial, a fast-growing insurance conglomerate in Israel, which manages over $100 billion assets for police holders in the region.

Kouchner believes that his unique contacts in both Israel and the Persian Gulf make him a reliable mediator. “Affinity is about uniting people to accomplish things that would otherwise not happen,” he says. In 2023, a state fund of United Arab Emirates tried to invest in Phoenix, but it was blocked by Israeli regulators. However, Affinity's investment, which included funds from Saudi Arabia, Emirates and Qatar, was approved.

The early Affinity agreements have not yet brought about major returns. Unybrands has faced slow growth and has not submitted financial documents for two years, raising concerns about its financial situation. Her biggest rival's Kolapsy, Thrasio, has added doubts about the future of companies buying and consolidating vendors on the Amazon platform. However, Affinity says that Unybrands has a steady flow of money.

Mosasic Solar, the first investment announced by Affinity, is facing pressure from subsidies cut for renewable energy under the new Trump administration. So far, the firm has invested over $2 billion and committed for another $1 billion in investments, but has not yet returned much money to investors, according to a Senate investigation last year. However, since private investors usually come out of their investments after five years, the lack of distribution by Affinity is not yet considered out of normal.

Not all investments have had difficulties. German Finance Company E GYM, supported by Affinity, has recently provided $200m in financing with a total estimate of over $1 billion, about twice its initial cost. Phoenix and QXO market values have also increased since Affinity's initial investment.

Currently, Kouchner is in investment talks on artificial intelligence and data centres that can achieve billions of dollars ' worth. He is also negotiating a major deal in Mexico for a waste management company a country with which he had close ties even during his time at the White House, confident that the country's industrialisation would benefit from moving US supply chains closer to its territory. However, the threat of customs duties could jeopardise the deal.

A close investor with Kouchner says he is focused on building his investment business”, adding: “He certainly has something to prove in this area. ”

After he first avoided investing in real estate, Affinity has returned to this sector but this time away from Manhattan.

The first agreement was based on ties with political leaders created during Trump's first term. In Belgrade, Serbia's capital, Affinity has rented the former Yugoslav Defence Ministry building, which is breaking down to transform into a luxury hotel and a modern residential complex.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, who had good relations with the first Trump administration, told FT last year that he was very proud of the project. The “will bring more investors, and this will attract more and more people to Belgrade,” he said. “This is good for Serbian-American friendship. ”

Richard Green, who had a key role in the diplomacy of the Western Balkans during the end of Trump's first mandate, has presented this agreement as an attempt to improve Serbia's relations with the West and remove it from Russia's historic influence.

Grenelli never retired,” says Zorana Mihajlovic, Serbia's former deputy prime minister for eight years until 2022. He's always been here. ”

Even Edi Rama, Albania's prime minister, is excited about investing in his country. Donald Trump's connection to the luxury resort project represents an extraordinary “addback”, he acknowledges. “I can't hide it. Following the announcement of the agreement by Jared Kouchner, real estate prices in the [close moment of] Vlora had a notable increase. ”

According to Rama, focusing on super-luksoose customers, Kouchner's project will help Albania benefit from tourism, without causing major damage to protected natural areas, as would a massive tourist development. We need super-negotiation in this country, just as the desert needs water,” he says. “What you earn from 500 yachts is equal to what you earn from 40,000 low budget tourists. ”