Sobha Limited
With three decades of glorious experience in creating interiors of palaces and masterpieces in the Middle-East, Mr. P.N.C. Menon founded Sobha Limited in 1995 with a clear vision to transform the way people perceive quality. Today, Sobha, a Rs. 26 billion company, is the most trusted brand and only backward integrated real estate player in the country.
Since inception, the Company has always strived 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 contributed in making it a preferred real estate brand in India. In 2006, Sobha went public through its initial public offering, an event that created history when the issue got oversubscribed a record 126 times.
Headquartered in Bangalore, Sobha is primarily focused on residential and contractual projects. The Company’s residential projects include presidential apartments, villas, row houses, luxury and super luxury apartments, plotted development and aspirational homes replete with world-class amenities. In all its residential projects, the company lays a strong emphasis on environmental management, water harvesting and high safety standards. On the contracts side, the Company has constructed a wide variety of structures for corporates including corporate offices, convention centres, software development blocks, multiplex theatres, hostel facilities, guest houses, food courts, restaurants, research centres and club houses. Some of Sobha’s prestigious corporate clients include Infosys, Taj Group, Dell, HP, Timken, Biocon, Institute of Public Enterprises (IPE), Bosch, Hotel Leela Ventures and others.
One of the most well-respected brands in the real estate sector, Sobha has many distinctions to its credit, mainly its impeccable execution and on-time delivery track record. As of December 31, 2016, Sobha has completed 116 real estate projects and 280 contractual projects covering about 84.96 million square feet of area. The Company currently has ongoing real estate projects aggregating to 42.94 million square feet of developable area and 30.81 million square feet of saleable area, and ongoing contractual projects aggregating to 8.96 million square feet under various stages of construction. The Company has a real estate presence in 9 cities, viz. Bangalore, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore, Thrissur, Calicut, Cochin and Mysore. Overall, Sobha has footprint in 25 cities and 13 states across India.
The backward integration model is one of the key competitive strengths of Sobha. This ensures that the Company has control not only over the supply but more importantly over the quality of the materials it uses in construction activities. Sobha has all the competencies and in-house resources to deliver a project from conceptualisation to completion. Backward integration includes an interiors division, a metal works and glazing factory and a concrete products factory. Sobha has also diversified into retail business with spring mattresses under the brand name ‘Sobha Restoplus’. More than 27 variants of mattresses are produced by the mattress division using cutting-edge machinery of international quality.
Sobha is renowned for its world-class products. The Company conforms to the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications for its quality, safety and environment management systems.
Sobha employs around 2,800 people directly. It places a lot of emphasis on human resource development of which skill enhancement and advancement are given paramount importance. At Sobha, training is an on-going process for all employees which ensures that they are abreast of the latest and newest developments in their domain of expertise.
As a responsible corporate citizen, Sobha’s CSR activities encompass the areas of education and vocational training, providing healthcare facilities and helping the aged, single mothers, children and others in need of financial and other assistance. The CSR activities are primarily undertaken through a public charitable trust, the Sri Kurumba Educational and Charitable Trust.
Some of the key social projects undertaken by the Trust are (a) Sobha Hermitage, a unique senior citizens’ and widows’ home with world-class amenities, (b) Sobha Health Care, a primary health centre with best-in-class facilities for medical treatment, (c) Sobha Academy, an exclusive educational institution for the underprivileged children, (d) Sobha Icon, another educational initiative to improve the standards of Government school students in higher classes, (e) Sobha rural women empowerment, (f) Sobha Vocational Training Centre which trains to develop skilled tradesmen from the economically weaker sections of the society, (g) social rehabilitation scheme for the people of the three backward panchayats.
Sobha has been honoured with over 160 prestigious awards by various institutions of repute. Sobha Limited has once again been adjudged the top brand according to Track2Realty’s ‘Brand X Report 2015-16’ across several categories – Top National Brand; Top South Indian Brand; Top Residential Brand; Top Super Luxury Brand and The Most Trusted Brand by Consumers. The other awards include ‘one of India’s Top 10 Builders for the year 2016’ at the Construction World Architect & Builder (CWAB) 2.0 awards, ‘Best Luxury Residential Developer in Bangalore’ at ALREN – Indian Luxury Real Estate Awards 2016, ‘CSR Award’ by CREDAI in 2015, ‘Award of Excellence’ at the 10th Construction World Architect and Builder Awards (CWAB) in 2015; the ‘Real Estate Company of the Year’ by Construction Week in 2014; the ‘Developer of the Year – Residential (for Sobha Eternia) by Realty Plus in 2014; the ‘Mint-Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) Strategy’ award (under the aegis of the Porter Prize) in 2014, amongst many others.
Multiple laurels have also been showered on the founder and Chairman Emeritus, Mr. P.N.C. Menon which include the ‘Brand Icons – Excellence in Business (EIB) Award for Corporate Social Responsibility’ by Times of India, ‘Golden Peacock Lifetime Achievement Award for Business Leadership’ by the Institute of Directors (IOD) in 2014, the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award for Real Estate’ by NDTV in 2013 and the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Puraskar‘ conferred by the Government of India in 2009. Mr. Ravi Menon, Chairman, was honoured with the ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Construction Week, ‘EY Entrepreneur of the Year – Real Estate, Energy & Infrastructure’ by EY in 2014 and ‘Pathfinders Award for Most Enterprising CXO’ by Realty Plus in 2013. The Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mr. J.C. Sharma, was voted ‘Asia’s Best Property CEO’ by Institutional Investor Magazine for two years in succession. The Company’s Chairman, Mr Ravi Menon was conferred with the ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Construction Week during this FY 2014-15 & Mr J.C. Sharma, Vice Chairman and Managing Director was awarded the ‘Best CEO in Real Estate’ at the NDTV Property Awards.
Sobha is an organisation that is highly focused on delivering international quality products in a timely manner with utmost perfection.
