DB Realty inducts promoters' fathers on board

"The Board of Directors of the company...has appointed Krishna Murari Goenka (Father of Vinod Goenka) and Usman Balwa (Father of Shahid Balwa) as additional directors of the company with effect from April 21," D B Realty said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"Both of them have vast experience, maturity and business knowledge, which will immensely benefit the company," the Mumbai-based developer added.

Promoters Goenka and Balwa were arrested after a Delhi court denied them bail in the 2G spectrum scam case. Balwa was the founder of Swan Telecom which has telecom licence but is now under scrutiny. Goenka was also a director in Swan Telecom (now Etisalt DB) which a is joint venture between D B Group and UAE-based Etisalat.

Both the new appointees have been in business for long and the feeling in corporate circles is that D B Realty is attempting to benefit from their domain knowledge of the real estate sector as well as their experience, at a time when the company's younger leadership is behind bars.

Usman Balwa is reported to be in the property business for a long time now while K M Goenka is running a successful dairy business in Baramati.

The company also informed the BSE that Michael McCook has resigned from the directorship of the company. Before McCook, four directors had resigned -- Shahid Balwa, Shahzaad Dalal from IL&FS, Chandan Bhattacharya and Sundaram Rajagopal.

D B Realty had last week said its managing director Vinod Goenka not getting bail in the 2G spectrum scam would not have any impact on company's operations.

Putting up a brave face, the company had said that being a professionally-run company with experts at various levels of its hierarchy. The absence of Goenka and Balwa would not adversely impact its business operations, it had said.

D B Realty, which has a market cap of Rs 2,542 crore, is developing 30 projects in Mumbai and Pune.

The share price of DB Realty today closed at Rs 104.5 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down by 0.99 per cent from its previous close.