Dubai billionaire Hussain Sajwani acquires De Grisogono, once owned by Isabel dos Santos

As part of its development into high-end fashion, billionaire Hussain Sajwani’s Damac Group has purchased De Grisogono SA, a Swiss luxury jeweler that filed for bankruptcy in early 2020 and was majority-owned by disgraced Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and her late husband.

Damac also announced the debut of Safa One by de Grisogono, a property project in Dubai with cascading waterfalls, hanging gardens, and a manufactured beach on the podium level.

“Keeping in line with our ambitions to expand our business into the luxury and high-end fashion realm, bidding for de Grisogono came to us naturally,” Sajwani said in a statement on Tuesday. The company did not provide financial details regarding the De Grisogono transaction.

The deal comes three years after the billionaire’s private investment firm purchased Italian fashion house, Roberto Cavalli SpA.

Damac announced earlier this month that it had won a $120-million auction for land in the posh Surfside region of Miami, where it planned to build a Cavalli-branded condominium project.

De Grisogono, whose diamond jewelry has been worn by celebrities such as Paris Hilton, filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after becoming embroiled in a corruption investigation involving dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president.

Fawaz Gruosi, a former Bulgari executive, launched the brand in 1993 and is noted for his trademark black-diamond jewelry.

De Grisogono has blended unusual semi-precious stones like rubellite and tourmalene with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies in his designs, which have been worn by Naomi Campbell and Salma Hayek.