Despite the economic slump, the company has managed to sell 723 residential units as on Q3 2009-10

With a vision to ‘transform the way people perceive quality’, Sobha Developers Ltd (SDL) was established in 1995. The company’s continuous emphasis on quality, innovation, engineering methods, attention to detail and maintaining delivery schedules have made SDL a preferred realty brand in India.

The company has developed 1.41 million square feet (mn sq ft) of residential units and 3.39 mn sq ft of contractual projects, aggregating to 4.8 mn sq ft for the 9-month period ended on December 31, 2009. Despite the economic slump, it managed to sell 723 residential units till the third quarter of 2009-10.

Location

Headquartered in Bengaluru, the company has marketing offices in Pune, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Thrissur and New Delhi. Furthermore, it also has an international marketing office in Dubai, UAE.

Line of Business

The company is engaged in the construction of residential and contractual projects. The residential projects comprise villas, row houses, super luxury apartments and affordable housing units, among others, while the contractual projects include corporate offices, food courts, research centres and software development blocks and many more.

Key strength

The major strength of SDL lies in its backward integration model, enabling the company to deliver a project from its conceptualisation to completion. Backward integration includes architectural expertise, interior design studio, concrete block making plant, structural steel works, metal and glazing factory and wood working factory. Apart from this, the company also has highly skilled and experienced workforce, in-house legal support and large land bank.

Certifications

• Received ISO 9001 (2008 series) certification for adhering to global standards in quality from NVT Quality Certification Pvt. Ltd (Business Partner of KEMA Quality Netherlands) in April 2009
• Received ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007 certifications for complying with international standards for environmental management system from Bureau Veritas Certification (India) Pvt. Ltd. in April 2009

Achievements

Some of the recent achievements of the company include:

• Recognised as the second best Indian company practicing value engineering by Indian Value Engineering Society for 2009-10
• Received ‘Real Estate Excellence Award’ from Moksh Promotions Limited in 2007
• Received ‘C&W Award 2007’ from Construction World for being among India’s top 10 builders
• Received ‘Best Executed Project in India’ award for its Sobha Malachite III project in 2007; the award was presented jointly by CNBC, ICICI and CRISIL (Credit Rating and Information Services of India Ltd.)
• Chairman P N C Menon received the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Puraskar’ from Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Pratiba Patil in January 2009

Clientele

The company’s clientele includes brand-enhancing names such as Infosys Technologies, Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell, the Taj Group, Bayer and Timken, among others.

Projects

Completed projects

As on December 31, 2009, the company has completed 57 residential projects and 158 contractual projects, covering an area of around 35.56 mn sq ft across 17 cities in India. Some of the completed projects are Sobha Dahlia, Bengaluru; Sobha Daffodil, Bengaluru and Sobha Pearl, Bengaluru, among others.

Ongoing projects

At present, the company has 27 ongoing residential projects, covering a total area of 8.55 mn sq ft. Besides, it has 5.48-mn sq ft of contractual projects under various stages of construction and design.

Forthcoming projects

The company intends to launch eight projects, covering an area of 8 mn sq ft across various market segments by 2010-11. Among the eight forthcoming projects, four will be in Bengaluru, two in Coimbatore and one each in Chennai and Pune.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The company believes that comprehensive and sustainable development of rural India is critical for the overall well-being of the society. Therefore, it has launched a unique social developmental programme, Graamasobha, in 2006 under its CSR initiative. The programme covers educational, healthcare and other basic requirements of over 2,500 BPL families in the two gram panchayats in Palakkad district of Kerala.

Shareholding Pattern

It is a public limited company.

Promoter

The promoter of the company is P N C Menon, who is also the founder and chairman of SDL.

Turnover

The company has clocked Rs 3,102-million turnover as on December 31, 2009, up by 65% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Profitability

The company reported a 444% rise in profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 408 million as on December 31, 2009, as against Rs 75 million during the same period last year.