A Look Inside Trump's Global Deals Exposes Trouble in Many Spots
By Stephanie Baker and Tim Higgins
February 24, 2016 — 4:00 PM EST
bloomberg.com
Millions made on name but there are losses and lawsuits too
He says his deal-making abroad is a model for when president
In Panama, his condominium owners are trying to fire him. In Canada and Turkey, his business partners want to cut him loose. In Scotland and Ireland he claims to be making millions but so far is losing money.
Donald Trump says his organization is in talks on more than 100 deals, 85 percent of them outside the U.S., and that if elected president he will bring to international relations the savvy he has demonstrated as a global deal maker.
But an examination of his operations abroad reveals that, while he has made many millions selling his name, he has chosen a number of inexperienced -- even questionable -- partners, sometimes infuriated buyers and associates and moved late into saturated markets, producing less income than advertised.
A number of naming-rights deals over the past decade have involved investors paying him multimillion-dollar sums, sometimes with a percentage of condo sales or a management fee to run hotel operations. In some places, such as the Philippines, there are strong early sales with projects due to be completed in the next few years. But others have gone far less well, descending into legal conflicts amid claims of broken promises and empty apartments.
Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, disputes the claims and dismisses them as outliers. "I’ve done very well internationally," he said last week in a telephone interview from South Carolina, where he won the primary. "I don’t think there is a hotter brand in the world than the Trump brand."
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