Board Appointment
West Pioneer Properties is pleased to announce the immediate appointment of Nitin Dattani as Executive Director of the Company.
Nitin (42 years old) qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1994. Since 1998, he has owned and managed a niche accountancy and business advisory firm based in London, Dattani Chartered Accountants, during which time he has been involved in advising a number of early stage and small and mid-sized companies in the UK and internationally.
Nitin was also an advisor to the West Pioneer board as well as its India subsidiary, Westfield Retail Private Ltd, in the period leading up to the Company's admission to AIM. As a member of the board, he will be primarily responsible for co-ordinating the Company's activities outside of India, in particular in relation to financial and investor relations matters.
The following information is given in respect of Mr Dattani as required by schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM rules.
Current Directorships:
- Winmore Investments Limited (note 1)
- West Brick Investments Limited
Note 1: Winmore Investments Limited holds 50,000,000 shares in the Company, representing 66.7% of the issued share capital.
Directorships held within the last 5 years:
- Dattani Consulting Limited
- Montagu Project Management Limited
- KamaSutra Channel Limited
- R Dattani Associates Limited
- Synetix IT Limited
For further information, please contact:
| West Pioneer | |
| Amit Jatia, Chairman | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700 |
| Jayant Sohonie, Chief Executive Officer |
| Libertas Capital | |
| Aamir Quraishi / Andrew Hardy | Tel: +44(0) 20 7569 9650 |
Media Enquiries
| Abchurch Communications | |
| Heather Salmond / Leena Patel | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700 |
| leena.patel@abchurch-group.com | www.abchurch-group.com |
Notes to Editors
West Pioneer is a leading developer and operator of high-quality consumer/retail centric shopping malls in India. It was established by the prominent Mumbai based Jatia family to pursue opportunities in the rapidly growing organised retail and hotel sectors in India. The Group intends to acquire land in strategic locations in west and southern India, primarily in Tier Two cities. The land will be used to build, own and manage shopping malls, hotels or mixed mall/ hotel complexes.
The real estate and property development skills of the Jatia family, and Amit Jatia in particular, have been integral to the establishment and ongoing development of McDonald's operations in India, providing expertise in site acquisition (identification, feasibility studies and negotiation) and site development (design, tendering, engagement and management of external consultants).
The shopping centres' design will focus upon a contemporary style with the aim of reducing development costs and ongoing energy consumption. West Pioneer has already commenced the development of its first shopping mall in Kalyan, 30 miles north-east of Mumbai. A thorough selection process of the retail mix has taken place and the project is expected to be completed by the second half of 2007.
The retail market opportunity in west and southern India is derived from a combination of a virtually unpenetrated organised retail environment, growth in the middle class population, greater transparency in the property market and improved infrastructure development which provides access to the market.