Emaar's 'iconic' India building still on drawing board

The India joint venture, Emaar MGF, says it is in talks with foreign designers and architects for the project

After lying low for several quarters, the joint venture real estate company of Dubai’s Emaar Properties and home-grown MGF is toying with the idea of what it calls an “iconic” building in India. Ever since its launch in the country in 2005, it remained focused on high-end residential and commercial properties (nine of the former for every one of the latter) until controversies and slowdown almost put brakes on development activities.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai is considered Emaar’s most iconic creation in the world. But it is not clear whether India’s “iconic” will match Dubai’s. The company’s plans for an “architecturally aesthetic” structure in India is still on the drawing board, with even the number of storeys in it undecided. In an interaction with Business Standard, K Ramamurthy, chief executive (projects), Emaar MGF, said the company was talking with foreign designers and architects for the project without revealing details.    

For more than two years, the company has had to battle controversies related to delayed allocation of flats in Delhi’s Commonwealth Games (CWG) Village, a joint project with Delhi Development Authority, an enforcement directorate case on alleged foreign exchange violations, failed public offers and a Central Bureau of Investigation chargesheet regarding irregularities in a Hyderabad project. It has recently restructured senior management to streamline execution targets, sources said.

While Ramamurthy joined six months ago from another real estate company, Adrian Hardwick Jones, chief of design, has also joined recently. The company has brought in many other senior professionals at the project head levels.

Emaar MGF hit its lowest in development in 2012 when it neither launched nor delivered a single project, following the CWG project of 2010. It recovered slightly in 2013 and launched two, while delivering the first phase of a township and plotted development projects in Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Indore (Madhya Pradesh), besides a group housing in Mohali (Chandigarh). Ramamurthy said: “2014-15 will be the year of delivery as about eight projects launched earlier will be delivered in this period.” The company has now tied up with third-party contractors such as Shapoorji Pallonji, IL&FS and JMC to meet project deadlines.

The company is likely to maintain its residential-commercial ratio.  

It is developing 54 projects (including project phases) — 45 residential and nine commercial/retail, with an aggregate saleable area of 42.5 millon sq ft, spread across eight cities. It has a land bank of about 10,000 acres (including developed projects), of which 908 acres are in Delhi and 2,369 in Gurgaon.

The company has debt of Rs 4,000 crore, 60 per cent of which is long-term. “We have been reducing the debt over the years and working on reducing it further.”

The real estate sector has been slowing down for over a year, with dipping sales and high stocks. The projection for the sector is yet to pick up.

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