Saudi Arabia ‘gigaproject’ stonewalls settlement offer from ex-CEO in $120mn lawsuit

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Saudi Arabia’s state-backed property giant Roshn has stonewalled its former chief executive after he made an offer to settle a lawsuit seeking more than $100mn from the group over a claim of wrongful dismissal.

Roshn, one of five “gigaprojects” backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, received a settlement offer of less than $50mn from British-born David Grover in February, according to emails seen by the Financial Times. But over two months later it is yet to respond, according to people close to Grover.

The dispute with Grover, who has more than 40 years experience in the UK construction industry working on projects such as The Shard, has cast a pall over Saudi Arabia’s ability to attract and retain top executives for projects connected to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030”.

Observers of Saudi Arabia consider the claim to be a test case for the kingdom’s legal reforms, attempts to improve transparency and its treatment of foreign nationals, while the huge sum involved has brought heightened attention. There are concerns in the kingdom that a public battle is deterring other international executives from taking on roles.

Vision 2030 aims to modernise the kingdom and its economy. But many of the ambitious projects — from Roshn’s aim to build new homes for 2.2mn people to the flagship megacity Neom — have faced significant obstacles. Two of the five gigaprojects currently have “acting” chief executives.

Roshn’s acting chief executive, Khalid Johar, has been in place since Grover left the company a year ago, while Neom, the most prominent of the gigaprojects, has also had an acting chief executive for the past five months.

Critics say that despite billions of dollars in backing from the PIF sovereign wealth fund, the projects have struggled to overcome structural issues in the kingdom such as a lack of legal protections for staff contracts.

Prince Mohammed is the kingdom’s de facto ruler and also serves as chair of Roshn and other gigaprojects.

Roshn and PIF did not respond to requests for comment.

Grover’s claim is expected to be heard at Saudi Arabia’s supreme labour court, after being rejected by two lower courts. A date for the trial has been delayed multiple times and is still to be announced.

Grover, who spent most of his career at UK’s Mace, has claimed in his lawsuit that he is owed $120mn in pay and other awards to cover the full duration of his contract with Roshn, which he joined after being headhunted by PIF in 2020.

Prince Mohammed has set the company an ambitious target of rapidly building at least 400,000 new homes and associated amenities.

Grover was fired in April 2024, despite what he has claimed in court was a highly successful record that saw him transform Roshn into the kingdom’s largest property developer, building entertainment districts, hospitals, schools and mosques as part of the homes target.

Roshn has claimed that Grover was dismissed because he had rented apartments he owned in the south of France to company employees who were attending an industry conference, without first clearing it with its human resources department even though the company was covering the cost.

People close to Grover have argued that Roshn’s HR team was fully informed and supportive of the plan to use his French properties, which helped company executives attend the conference at the last minute. Any business was conducted on an arm’s length basis, they say.

The company has disputed in court that Grover fully declared his ownership of the French properties and has alleged in its defence that he took steps to hide his interest, something the UK executive denies.

The people close to Grover suggested he believed the apartment issue was used to dismiss him at a time when he and the company had hit performance targets triggering large bonuses in his contract, and as he tried to boost transparency at the company.

Last month Roshn appointed one of its executives, Sultan AlHunaiti as head of human resources, according to a company-wide email seen by the FT.

Roshn’s acting chief executive Johar said AlHunaiti would remain in the HR role “until further notice”.

The email made no mention of the status of the previous head of HR, Nasreen Aldossary, and offered no thanks for her work in the role.

Aldossary did not respond to a request for comment.