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Emin Agalarov, the Azerbaijani singer and property developer whose father is Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov, has pledged to invest E1.65 billion ($99 million) in Eswatini, a commitment welcomed by King Mswati III.
Agalarov made the pledge in Ezulwini, the tourism valley between Mbabane and Manzini, where he was the king's special guest at a Royal Theatre Night at the Ezulwini Palazzo International Convention Centre.
The commitment adds to a push by the small southern African kingdom to draw foreign capital through its investment conference and the king's state visits abroad.
A link made in Baku
The pledge follows Mswati's visit to Azerbaijan in May. During the trip, Agalarov guided the king and members of his delegation, including Cabinet ministers, around Sea Breeze, the resort city he is building on about 750 hectares of the Caspian Sea coast north of Baku. The project combines villas, apartments, hotels, beaches, schools, a hospital and an aqua park.
After returning home, Mswati told reporters at Ludzidzini Royal Residence that Azerbaijan's leadership wanted to support Eswatini economically and that Azerbaijani companies planned feasibility studies in several sectors, including energy and petroleum. The two countries have also signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in mining.
The Agalarov business
Emin Agalarov is first vice president of Crocus Group, the Moscow real estate company founded by his father in 1989. The group built the Crocus City complex on the edge of Moscow, which includes the Crocus Expo exhibition centre, shopping malls and the Crocus City Hall concert venue. In March 2024, gunmen attacked the concert hall, killing more than 140 people in the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The younger Agalarov is also a pop singer with a large following in Russia and the former Soviet states. He was married to Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, from 2006 to 2015, and has expanded the family's development business in Azerbaijan, where Sea Breeze is his flagship project.
Aras Agalarov was born in Baku and moved to Moscow in the 1980s, where he built Crocus Group into one of Russia's biggest developers of malls, exhibition space and residential projects. He is a billionaire, according to Forbes.
Figures were converted at E16.6 to the dollar. The lilangeni is pegged one-to-one to the South African rand.
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