Al Habtoor Group Announces Major Board Reshuffle

Dubai-based Al Habtoor Group has announced a major reshuffle across its board targeting growth across all its businesses in the coming years.

The shakeup will occur across all units in the group including hotels, motors, real estate, car rental, and its legal and audit boards. The changes will be effective from January 1, 2014, the company said.

“This reshuffle is essential to ensure we are ready to for what the future holds,” said Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, chairman of Al Habtoor Group.

“We need to prepare our units for the opportunities ahead following Dubai’s success to host the Expo 2020. I want to ensure we have renewed energy throughout the Al Habtoor Group units and make sure we have the correct strategy in place.”

He added: “As our motto states, we are growing with the UAE, and the Emirates is experiencing unprecedented growth. We want to capitalise on this and make sure we have the right people in place to enable us to continue growing with the UAE.”

The group said that its hotels division board has been carefully “planned with a mix of expertise to cope with the growing demands of the business.”

The conglomerate recently announced the launch of Al Habtoor City, a massive Dhs11 billion worth mixed-use residential and hotel development, on Sheikh Zayed Road at the heart of Dubai’s newly resurrected canal project.

When completed, the overall integrated complex will include over 3,000 hotel and residential units, a permanent water-themed production designed by Franco Dragone, a tennis academy and club house and a classical French-style landscaped garden.

The development is expected to attract 20,000 visitors every day and up to 7.3 million visitors a year, the company said.

In an exclusive interview recently, Khalaf Al Habtoor told Gulf Business that the group will now focus on investing in Dubai following “mostly negative overseas investments”. The group also has plans to launch an IPO as early as 2016, the chairman said.