PNC Menon's Sobha Group will soon foray into the US, after having emerged as the third largest real estate player in Dubai. In India, after three decades, it wants a slice of the high-value Mumbai pie
(Sitting) PNC Menon, Chairman Emeritus, Sobha Limited and Ravi Menon, Chaiman Sobha Limited
At 76, Puthan Naduvakkatt Chenthamaraksha (PNC) Menon remains as inquisitive as perhaps a toddler. The hearing aid and the snow-white hair might suggest that the doting grandfather has other priorities, but underneath it all, Menon is still the razor-sharp and sagacious tycoon he has always been. The firm handshake is the best reminder of that.
“The inquisitiveness continues,” Menon, dressed in a sharp white linen suit, tells Forbes India at his office in Dubai, where his company, Sobha Realty, has emerged as the third largest real estate player in less than a decade. “I still want to learn because there are things I don’t know. Learning is never-ending and I learn something new every day,” says Menon, who has handed the day-to-day operations of the business (named after his wife) to son Ravi.
Ravi PNC Menon, unlike his father, is reserved, perhaps even nonchalant, even as Menon unveils his grand ambitions to take Sobha into the US, while also doubling down on its presence in India. “Currently, we do $5 billion, and the global dream is to do about $15 billion. The India business should be getting closer to $4 billion,” Menon explains. “So, in total, it should be about $20 billion.”
Sobha has built a formidable reputation for its construction quality and delivery timelines
That’s some staggering ambition, particularly since it is a fourfold increase from its current numbers. Much of that, of course, hinges on the group’s ambitious foray into the US, where it is acquiring over 700 acres to set up both commercial and residential projects, including villas. The US expansion could give the group over $10 billion in revenue and is entirely Menon’s idea, driven largely by Sobha’s phenomenal run in Dubai where it stands behind Emaar and Damac in sales, after starting in 2013.
(This story appears in the 26 July, 2024 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)