Late last night, we confirmed that
Sulaiman al Fahim
, the founding chief executive of
Hydra Properties
,
was replaced by Ali bin Sulayem
. Mr Sulayem was a board member of the
Royal Group
, owned by
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan
. Mr al Fahim has
been at the centre of attention
lately for his bid to buy Britain's Portsmouth Football Club and disputes with hundreds of investors over Hydra Villages. Just the other week,
Mr al Fahim announced concessions to investors
, including delayed payment plans and less punishing contracts. Hydra is construing the move as a promotion for Mr al Fahim, who will now take a board member role, but there has been a lot of pressure on the company in the wake of the global financial crisis and property downturn. I guess this means the end of the Hydra Executives TV show, which has been on air since the beginning of the year. It's a beautiful time capsule of an age when you could buy and sell multi-million dirham property with a flyer on a street corner.
The (potential) deal between
Kingdom Holding
and
Emaar Properties
has been sort of like a roller coaster ride. Angela Giuffrida and Sarmad Khan today quote an analyst
saying the lack of proper disclosures a "public relations disaster"
. Emaar's shareprice has lost almost all of the gains it made on Sunday. This morning Kingdom made another statement to the Saudi Arabia bourse, though it doesn't reveal much. See it
. See a timeline of what happened in
.
Deyaar Development has cancelled its Enclave project
after refunding all its investors, Parag Deulgaonkar reports in Emirates Business 24/7. Deyaar is
undergoing a major process to reduce untenable projects and lower defaulting buyers
.
Work has started on the Ebony and Ivory towers in Dubai
, which are at the centre of a dispute between a group of investors and a property company.
Vacancy levels for office property in Dubai
, Anjana Kumar reports in Emirates Business 24/7.
