Developer Union Properties to elect new chairman and vice-chairman in a bid to exit latest troubles
Union Properties came up with indifferent results despite Dubai market's strong rebound
Dubai: The developer Union Properties has called a shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday (December 15) to elect a new Chairman and Vice-Chairman after federal investigations placed the previous chairman under a cloud.
If the upcoming meeting does manage to elect a new chairman, it will be the second such change at the top in four years. Recently, federal authorities confirmed they were looking into the developer’s books, and notably in the way it disposed some of its land holdings and which could have favoured some interested parties. The previous chairman was also placed under detention.
According to stock market sources, Union Properties’ problems is not confined to that of key personnel. “There is still some heavy debt the developer is carrying and which will need some sort of solution,” said Vijay Valecha, Chief Investment Officer at Century Financial. “This is even after it managed to restructure a near Dh1 billion debt with Emirates NBD last year.”
In its nine-month financials for 2021, Union Properties saw a sharp erosion in net profits, and actually went into a loss in the July to end September phase. The stock has been under the hammer in recent days.