(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Multinational real estate development and investment company, Sobha Group is planning a project in Oman. The group will provide a potential push into a new sector outside property as part of its wider expansion plans, according to founder and chairman, P N C Menon.
Speaking to an UAE-based business magazine, Menon said the firm was putting plans on hold for a large-scale affordable housing project in Dubai to focus on other areas including a 1,000sq m project in the sultanate. Menon has worked on projects in Oman including Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and the Al Bustan Palace hotel among other high-profile projects.
'I'll have some clarity, yes or no, by the end of October,' he said, declining to give more details. 'It could be 70 per cent yes and 30 per cent no.' The company has also signed a management agreement for a nine-square-kilometre development in Saudi Arabia and is planning to expand outside Middle East and India. It is currently working on two major projects in Dubai as part of the Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum City masterplan.
The first, the US$8.5bn District One in partnership with government-owned Meydan Group, includes more than 620 units in its first and second stages. The second, the US$4bn Sobha Hartland, is 90 per cent sold out in its opening phase. The first of the 344 villas, townhouses and apartments are scheduled for completion by year-end.
The company is also pushing ahead with the 53mn sq ft Firdous Sobha resort on a natural island on the coast of the UAE emirate of Umm al Quwain. Sobha now stands as India's third largest real estate development company in terms of total square feet delivered and is the country's only backward integrated real estate company, capable of executing projects from start to finish with minimal external support.
The group has presence in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei and India. Menon who hails from India was granted Omani citizenship in 1995. He started his interior design firm, Services & Trade Company (STC), in Oman in 1976. Since then, he has established a conglomerate with a multinational presence and is ranked 24th on Forbes' World's Richest Arabs 2017 List.
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