Dubai's Emaar Properties appoints Hadi Badri as MD of India business

Dubai-based realty major Emaar Properties has appointed Hadi Badri as managing director of its India business to drive growth following the demerger of its joint venture with a local partner, sources said. Hadi is currently the chief strategy officer of Emaar Properties and was also acting head of human resources over the past two years. According to sources, Emmar India's CEO Sanjay Malhotra will now move to a new role and work on international projects for the group company. Hadi, who joined Emaar Properties in 2015, has over nine years of management consulting and corporate strategy experience and five years of global private equity experience. Malhotra has been with Emaar India for more than 11 years and has worked at senior positions to manage business operations and finance. The appointment of MD comes two months after the National Company Law Tribunal(NCLT) approved the proposed demerger scheme of Emaar MGF Land in January, paving the way for two joint venture partners - Emaar Properties and India's MGF Development - go separate ways. In 2005, Emaar group entered Indian real estate market in partnership with MGF and invested Rs 8,500 crore through joint venture firm Emaar MGF Land. However, in April 2016, it decided to end this JV and two months later Shravan Gupta, the executive vice chairman & Managing Director of the JV firm, had resigned from the post. After Gupta stepped down, Emaar India did not appoint MD and elevated its Malhotra, then CFO, as the CEO. The company has completed about 5,000 units over the last 18 months and plans to give possession of the remaining about 10,000 units within next one and half years. It has raised debt to speed up construction of its various housing projects in Gurgaon, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mohali and Chennai. It also has a land bank of about 5,000 acres for future development. Dubai's Emaar group considers India as an important market and is committed to complete existing projects as well as launch new ones on its huge land bank, sources said.