Building a business with belief

When PNC Menon arrived in Muscat in the mid-1970s with only $7 in his pocket, all he had was ambition. Today he is one of the world's wealthiest people.

Menon and his business partner, Brigadier General Suleiman Adawi, an officer in the Sultanate of Oman Army, took out a small bank loan to launch their interiors business.

In just a few years the company went from its first contract fitting out a photographer's studio to working on royal palaces.

The business expanded to Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE and has since spread into real estate development and other related operations.

Today the Sobha Group is one of the region's biggest builders. Menon, who is personally worth $1.4 billion, is the 70th richest person in India and 1,465th on the global billionaires' list, according to Forbes.

His career has experienced many highs, but he describes one of his latest developments in Dubai, the Sobha Hartland, as the most exciting.

"I call it the third phase of my life in business, (when) we purchased about 8 million square feet of land in 2011 when the recession was not over in Dubai," Menon said.

"I always believed in Dubai. For me the most exciting cities are Dubai, Singapore and London.

"Anyone who comes and spends a few days (in Dubai), they fall in love with this city, they want to live in this city," he said.

(China Daily 04/15/2015 page7)