Emira said that CEO Ron van der Bos had resigned to focus on insurance group Momentum's property portfolios and "certain initiatives" related to them.

Momentum and RMB Properties which manages the Emira fund are both part of the First Rand Group.

Warren Schultze , CEO of RMB Properties, said Van der Bos, who is a director of RMB Properties, was previously responsible for all the asset management activities within RMB Properties along with his duties as Emira CEO.

"Because of the expanded activities within RMB Properties it makes sense for us to split the duties," Schultze said.

He said this was the rationale behind the appointment of James Templeton, who joined RMB Properties on April 1 this year.

Templeton was formally a property analyst at Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) Securities.

The Financial Mail rated Templeton the best property analyst two years in a row, for the period March 2001 to March 2002 and from March 2002 to March 2003.

Schultze said Templeton was given responsibility for Emira because of his experience in the listed property sector. "The market should view this move as positive ," he said.

Emira is a new fund on the local bourse, having listed at the end of November last year, with a market capitalisation of more than a R1bn.

On Thursday property loan stock company Arnold Property Fund (AProp) disclosed that it had entered into negotiations to acquire a portfolio of properties worth about R312m from Momentum Property Investments.

Corovest, the fund managers of A-Prop, would be joined by RMB Properties, which is responsible for managing the property assets of Momentum, in a joint venture to comanage the enlarged A-Prop.