Emaar MGF MD Shravan Gupta steps down

Realty firm Emaar MGF's Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director Shravan Gupta has resigned from the post after the two joint venture partners -- Dubai-based Emaar Properties and India's MGF Development -- decided to part ways and restructure the company's business.

Emaar MGF Land, which has filed a demerger scheme in the Delhi High Court to give effect to the restructuring process, has elevated company's Chief Financial officer (CFO) Sanjay Malhotra as acting CEO. Two new board members have also been appointed as Emaar properties nominees.

As part of the restructuring, Dubai's realty major Emaar would take control of the company's ongoing projects to ensure completion of those projects at the earliest.

When contacted, an Emaar MGF spokesperson said, "While Shravan Gupta has resigned as Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director of the company, he continues to act as director of the company," the spokesperson said, adding that "Sanjay Malhotra is the new acting CEO of the company".

The new board members appointed by the company are nominees of Emaar, the spokesperson said.

On significant delays in its ongoing projects and buyers protest, Emaar MGF said: "We would further like to submit that under the leadership of Emaar, the key focus of the company presently is to fast track development of the ongoing projects." The management would ensure that the international best practices of Emaar will be implemented in the projects of the company and the quality of the developments will be of Emaar's international standards.

"Customer focus is key and the management will ensure that customers' interest will be of prime focus for the company. Regular interaction will be kept with the customers to update on the projects and resolve all pending issues," the spokesperson said.

In April, Emaar Properties and MGF Developments had decided to end their 11-year-old joint venture through reorganisation and demerger of their India business.

Emaar Properties, which entered India in 2005 with largest FDI in the realty sector, has invested about Rs 8,500 crore in Indian real estate market through its JV firm.

Emaar MGF clocked a net loss of Rs 471.20 crore in 2015-16 fiscal. Income from operations fell to Rs 739.80 crore last fiscal from Rs 1,389.16 crore in the previous year.

Emaar MGF has a land bank of around 8,000 acres and 53 ongoing residential and commercial projects across the country.