Sobha Group: Poised for growth

PNC Menon, Founder and Chairman of Sobha Group, started his business in Muscat in 1976 with $7 in his pocket after a chance meeting with Captain Sulaiman Adawi, an Omani army officer, in a hotel lobby in Kochi, Kerala. Within 45 days later, he was in Oman, looking for business and upon landing, he and his partner borrowed 3,000 Omani riyals to start a small street-side furniture and interiors business under the name of Trade and Services Co. Initially, it was a 'briefcase business' - trying to fix small things, maintenance, etc. - which then developed into an interiors outfit.
By 1984, the company began to get big contracts, driven mostly by word-of-mouth due to its quality of work. Soon after he received a call to work for the Sultan's office in Muscat to work on a palace. The rest is history. His company then went on to work for the royalty of Oman, Bahrain, Qatar as well as the president of Tajikistan. He spent the most glorious part of his career designing and developing palaces, royal facilities and mosques.
Sobha Group is now a multinational, real estate and construction group that has diversified interests and investments in the UAE, India, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei and Tanzania.
The Grand Mosque in Muscat bears testimony to his work. Over the course of eight years, he developed a strong bond with Oman, a country which provided him with a strong foundation and backbone that enabled him to achieve greater success in the years ahead. In 1995, he and his family and were granted Omani citizenship. This recognition symbolises Menon's strong and lifelong connection with the Gulf.
Sobha strives for benchmark quality, customer-centric approach, robust engineering, in-house research, uncompromising business ethics, timeless values and transparency in all spheres of business conduct, which have all contributed to making it a brand trusted for excellence. Sobha is an organisation where quality meets excellence, technology meets aesthetics and passion meets perfection. It expanded its footprint in 2003 to Dubai, the business capital of the Middle East. Dubai's world-class infrastructure, sustainable economic growth and access to international talent made this an ideal location to establish Sobha Middle East, a privately held company with plans to diversify across GCC and some other regions in Asia and Europe with focus on luxury residential development, education, hospitality and furniture manufacturing.
Being the foremost backward integrated company in the world is what makes Sobha Group stand apart from the rest of the real estate organisations. It means that the company has all the key competencies and in-house resources to deliver a project from conceptualisation to completion. Sobha is primarily focused on residential and contractual projects. The Company's residential projects include presidential apartments, villas, row houses, super luxury and luxury apartments, plotted developments and aspirational homes.
At present, there are three major projects under construction, two of which are located at prime locations in Dubai and are expected to be completed by 2020. The Sobha Hartland project was launched in 2014, which is a $4 billion dollar, mixed-use development. The resort-style luxury housing project encompasses 8 million square feet of freehold community in Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum City. 30 per cent (2.4 million square feet) of the community is only reserved for greenery.
The Meydan Sobha District One project is valued at $8 billion. It is a joint venture with Meydan Group and will develop 45 million square feet of freehold land into an exclusive destination of luxury villas and mansions surrounded by expansive green parks and lagoons within the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum City.
Sobha Group is also developing the Firdous Sobha scheme in agreement with the Umm Al Quwain government, a mixed-use island development that will have villas, apartments, hotels, shops and leisure facilities with a total value of around $6.8 billion.
Commenting on this journey, PNC Menon says, "With a legacy and track record of over 40 years, Sobha Group's vision is to be the most trusted and respected real estate organisation in the GCC and to continue to transform the way people perceive quality by pioneering innovative projects and exceeding customers' expectations across core markets. Dubai offers a range of exciting projects that caters to every need and fancy of investors ranging from 149 nationalities. Sobha Hartland, surrounded by 2.4 million square feet of greenery and set along the Dubai Water Canal, enjoys the unique advantage of prime location. With Hartland Greens, Waterfront villas, and Hartland Estates -Town House community, Sobha Group continues to set a benchmark in offering world-class bespoke living experience. Our belief 'Passion at Work' at Sobha Group is what motivates more than 3,500 Sobhaites today to become specialists in their field."