Raimon Land CEO Nigel Cornick Resigns

The battered Thai residential development market has claimed its first causality with high profile Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Nigel Cornick tendering his resignation. A replacement has been announced with Hubert Viriot from Raimon's major Middle East shareholder IFA being appointed to lead the company. With sales flattening in the luxury condominium market it caters to and an over reliance on foreign buyers who have been hit hard by the continued global downturn, the group has substantial surplus units at The Heights Phuket, The River, Northpoint and a number of other projects.
IFA which is currently experiencing issues in its own backyard is injecting cash back into Raimon, which also relied on Lehman's and were negatively impacted by that firms collapse last year. The company has announced plans to defer development at the high profile uber luxury Amalfi project in Phuket which is located next to the Amanpuri. Raimon's current situation brings the shortcoming of property ownership by foreigners into a stronger light, and remains a topic unaddressed by the current Thai Government who have done little to attract overseas investment in this sector.
Nigel Cornick during his tenure was a great supporter of Phuket through key sponsorship of King's Cup Regatta, Phang Nga Bay Regatta, and widely distributed publications such as Condo Focus and Why Invest in Phuket. Raimon Land has been an important cooperative market resource and potentially a vacuum will be created by the firm's current situation.