While other developers aspiring to go global are tying up with international brands, PNC Menon, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Sobha Group believes in organic growth of the brand. In an exclusive interview with Ravi Sinha at his Dubai office, he explains how Sobha has the inherent resilience to succeed anywhere in the global market. Focus on quality & don’t break the law is his mantra of global brand leadership.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Analysis of West Zone (Mumbai)
The retail landscape across the western zone of the country has remained active through 2012. The sector performance was characterized by buoyant leasing activity from both Indian and international brands. As a result, in addition to expansion of Indian brands, many international retailers also set up their new outlets in the city. Moreover, the recent policy reforms, allowing FDI in multi-brand retail has improved overall sentiments in the sector.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Analysis of North zone (Delhi NCR)
Owing to sluggish global and domestic economic growth, high inflation and steep depreciation in rupee value, market sentiment remained subdued during the first three quarters of 2012. International brands are still positive about the Indian growth story.
Two marquee international brands — Giorgio Armani and Ferragamo — that have joint ventures with leading realty player DLF group’s subsidiary, DLF Brands, have been talking to other corporate groups and investors to scope out the potential of changing their Indian partner.
Backward integration definitely helps and my reason for backward integration is that I have total control over quality. I come from that industry where I had been into contracting for the last 40 years. Real estate for me is only for the last 20 years. I have since beginning worked on very high-end contracts, including design. So, I have the knowledge coming from the grassroot level of contracts. Eventually I thought I should do real estate also while doing contracts outside.
The Government’s decision to allow 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and 100% FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route was a definite crowd-pleaser that attracted giants like Walmart to make forays into the country.
Year 2018 was a veritable roller-coaster ride for the Indian real estate. Despite signs of recovery across segments, the liquidity crunch – further exacerbated by the NBFC crisis – put all industry stakeholders on tenterhooks.
A closer look in and around the area nevertheless convinced her that she had not been asked to pay unreasonable money by this landlord. As a matter of fact, many other properties closer to her office in Andheri demanded even higher rental; even closer to what could be seen as demanding a rental yield that is not an Indian reality.
Mumbai has been the undisputed financial capital of India. The emergence of other business destinations, like Bangalore, Gurgaon or Pune could not take the sheen out of the city, even in the wake of infrastructure deficit and other urban problems plaguing the peninsular city. Now the Mumbai city is poised to elevate itself to the next level of business destination. The MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority) plans to make Mumbai a major global financial hub.
Virtuous Retail South Asia has acquired the 2 million sq ft North Country Mall from Sun Apollo/Gumberg for INR 700 crores (USD 108 MM), including paying down debt. With this acquisition, VRSA establishes its presence in North India, adding to its existing award winning portfolio of community-centric centers VR Surat and VR Bangalore, and the 2 million sq ft. VR Chennai slated to open in Q4 2017.