Sobha Group is looking to expand its real estate portfolio into the UK or America within the next five years.
The developer has bases in India and Dubai as well as diversified interests and investments in the UAE, India, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei and Tanzania.
Sobha Group also recently opened sales offices in London and Shanghai.
Jyotsna Hegde, Sobha Group president, told Arabian Business that the focus, for now, was on building the company in the UAE.
She said: “We want to be the best brand in Dubai. I’m not saying we want to be the biggest, but we definitely want to be the best boutique real estate company in Dubai.”
Jyotsna Hegde, Sobha Group president.
Hegde explained that the company in India, which was founded in 1976 by first generation Indian entrepreneur, and company chairman, PNC Menon, took 15 years to mature. She believes the Dubai business, which is currently five years old, will reach maturity in a further three years.
After which, she said, expansion plans were very much part of their plans.
She said: “This (Dubai) is a home market for us and consolidation here is the priority. Once we have consolidated, geographical expansion is also on the cards. We’ll look at another global destination. Our target is to become a global company, a serious, global real estate player.
“It will be another strong global destination, either the UK or America, maybe America because there’s enough domestic demand, there’s a lot of opportunities. We are in India, we’re here (Dubai), now we have to move, to America or the UK.
“In the next five years we should start looking at it, but plans are fluid because it all depends on consolidation, our liquidity, etc.”
The developer, which is behind the 8 million square feet $4bn Sobha Hartland project in Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum City (MBR), announced a record AED500 million ($136 million) sales bookings in the first quarter of 2019 – 33 percent above target.
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